July 2019
Michael L. Newell
astrangertotheland@yahoo.com
Bio: I have spent close to 1/3 of my life abroad.  I retired (in 2014) to the Oregon coast.  I spent 27 years as a secondary school English/Theatre teacher. My most recent book of poems is Meditation of an Old Man Standing on a Bridge (Bellowing Ark Press, 2018).  I recently have had poems published in Jerry Jazz Musician and Ship of Fools.
 
LIFE'S BOUNTY
(for Anna and Michael Citrino)
 
When time has enveloped all the days
that are your right, and all you know
of beauty, love, generosity, and grace
has been swept away by the undertow
 
of all the years through which you've swum,
may you remember your partner who consecrated
each and every day you spent as one
entity intertwined by fate,
 
and recall the simplest gestures binding you
together: brushing aside a lock of hair,
a light caress of a shoulder, the true 
surprise of a sudden kiss, or an arm bare
 
in late afternoon sun while shadows waver
in a cool breeze -- life's bounty free to savor.
 

 
 

A BEATING OF WINGS
 

A beating of wings
stuns the morning air;
 
we lift our heavy heads
into dazzle and stare;
 
all day our eyes rise, fall,
rise in rhythmic recall
 
once our race made a choice,
not mastery of air but voice
 
which we use to admire 
those who soar into fire.
 
 

 
 
RANDOM ACTS OF BEAUTY AND JOY
 

Wild birds above Tashkent
decorate a dawning day with loops 
and whirls drawn with abandon;
 
and first love spirals freely
with chaotic grace, wonder, 
and emotion's liberation;
 
so too a porpoise soars
above an ocean in balletic flight,
a sight which delights onlookers' hearts;
 
and an old man watches in silent awe as beauty 
takes an infinite array of forms which are similar 
and different and ever joyous.  
© 2019 Michael L. Newell
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