November 2024
Bio Note: Gray's published a poem of mine in October; another is coming out next year, but the editor didn't identify just when. I like Gray's especially in the fall with all its colored fallish pages. The Wallace Stevens Journal has accepted a poem for 2026, and a review of a book of prose and poems by 44 poets and writers about Hartford is due out from North American Review; next year my essay on Alex Posey will appear with critical biographies of other poets in an anthology by Spuyten Duyvil. Otherwise, I'm trying to compile another collection, getting out in the Tucson air now that's it's cooling down a bit, and riding my bike as much as possible. I just returned from a fly fishing trip with my son and his girlfriend. He's better at it than I am, and when we were on the South Platte in CO at 9,000' and talking about writing, he said, "You've written enough." I think he wanted me to concentrate more on trying to catch those elusive trout up there. Anyway, it kind of ended the conversation. I really don't know what wisdom is, or is supposed to be, but I think there was some wisdom in what he said.
Jawlines
White on white
pitched sideways
in the desert sand
this morning I saw
the jawbone of some
dead animal, coyote,
or javelin, and with
a few teeth intact,
white as sand,
white as bone,
the animal must
have died “elegantly.”
Elegant. A word scientists
use for the prized, the unique
simplicity and economy
of a concept, a formula
having struck the mind
sideways, as Einstein did
not wish to prolong life
artificially, and said,
“I will do it elegantly,”
and that occurred apparently
when his aneurysm
burst silently in his sleep.
I bent over and touched
the bleached bone,
its surface was mildly rough,
to the touch, a texture
I did not expect, and will be
sand and sand soon enough,
then absently traced my own
jawline along its film of skin.
©2024 Michael Gessner
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