May 2018
J. R. Solonche
jsolo@frontiernet.net
jsolo@frontiernet.net
I’m Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Orange. I live in the Hudson Valley with my wife, the poet Joan I. Siegel, and five cats, two of whom are poets. I’ve published five collections of poetry, including Beautiful Day (Deerbrook Editions), Won’t Be long (Deerbrook Editions), and Invisible (Five Oaks Press), with the sixth forthcoming in April.
I’m Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Orange. I live in the Hudson Valley with my wife, the poet Joan I. Siegel, and five cats, two of whom are poets. I’ve published five collections of poetry, including Beautiful Day (Deerbrook Editions), Won’t Be long (Deerbrook Editions), and Invisible (Five Oaks Press), with the sixth forthcoming in April.
PARKING LOT POEM
So here I am in the parking
lot of the shopping mall,
the fourth best place to write
a poem, after the garret in
the hotel on Montmartre,
after the round tower
of the medieval castle on
the Irish coast, after any prison
cell anywhere. It is a big
parking lot, and the sky over
it is a big sky, big as a continent
with its own mountains and
cities and rivers and plains
of cloudy wheat. The sky
is bigger than the sky you
would see from the garret,
from the tower, from
any prison cell anywhere.
PARKING LOT POEM
So here I am in the parking
lot of the shopping mall,
the fourth best place to write
a poem, after the garret in
the hotel on Montmartre,
after the round tower
of the medieval castle on
the Irish coast, after any prison
cell anywhere. It is a big
parking lot, and the sky over
it is a big sky, big as a continent
with its own mountains and
cities and rivers and plains
of cloudy wheat. The sky
is bigger than the sky you
would see from the garret,
from the tower, from
any prison cell anywhere.
©2018 J. R. Solonche
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