Poetry

Excerpt from my new book!

/ boz bozeman / 2 Comments

This is from a poem called “The Spark”. I wrote it about an event in Hartford called “Other People’s Poetry”. Held outdoors at the host’s house, I imagined a young woman sitting in her apartment window next door and being inspired by the poems she heard. 

You lean in closer, tilt your head,  
So your ear is nearly pressed to the screen  
Like an elderly woman 
Leaning into her iPhone.  

Still, you only hear shards of words.  
“The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame.” 
They rear in front of you, these eyes,  
So monstrous that they are alight with fire.  
They will be with you for days  
Lighting your way with wild rage.   

More snapping. 
A woman sits, 
A man rises to the microphone. 
He reads: “There will be time, there will be time  
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;  
There will be time to murder and create.”  

Murder AND create?  
How can they be in the same line?

I’d love it if you bought a copy! Here’s the link to purchase it from Amazon!

Happy Thanksgiving

/ boz bozeman / 5 Comments

For this weeks #tankatuesday, I reflected on a flurry that was spinning in the air as I took Anna out for our little walk before bed. I love these small hints of winter, and snow’s crystal nature and dancing ways always fascinate me.

I don’t know about you, but I would take snow over cold rain any day. 

The brief snowflakes swirl
In a dance of becoming
That changes to rain

If you like my poems, I hope you’ll check out my new book Self of Steam. Many of the poems, such as the title verse, are based on mistakes my students made in their writing that suggested poetic images to me. I would love for you to give it a try.

Autumn Glory

/ boz bozeman / 2 Comments 
Fall leaves!  
I celebrate your splash of color 
Your delicate yellows  
Citrus orange  
Majestic red 

I honor you, 
Because your changing hue 
Is the glory 
Of leaves dying.  

I will not forget your verdant green 
Your spring and summer   
Wind dances  
Hushing and shushing together. 
The brief glimpse of your  
Light underside.  

And to those trees  
That have already shed their leaves?  
I donʼt blame you.  
Iʼm tired too.

My first Haibun Monday – Equinox edition

/ boz bozeman / 15 Comments

I’m learning the Haibun form, which combines prose and poetry. I like this very much, since prose is my first love.

The challenge is to write a post about the equinox. Here’s mine:

Fall fell on its birthday this year in Connecticut. A twenty-degree dip in temperature in one day, cool replacing the wisps of warmth of a day ago. As if it knew its time had come and did not wish to tarry.

The sun is blocked out by clouds, so it is a grey day that we get half of. It’s been too nice for a lot of leaves to fall in the heavy rain: the trees’ green belies this sudden steely Autumn.

Darkness will do for the other half of the equinox. It is flexing now, beginning to feel its length stretch out before it, a host of days to darken.

Still I will balance
Rotating, tilting, spinning
Cycling through it all

Join the fun here.

Anniversary “Imayo” for #TankaTuesday

/ boz bozeman / 9 Comments

The Imayo poetry form has these guidelines. A bit of a tough one 🙂 Also, it’s supposed to be about a bird, and it is: Lovebirds

  • 4 lines (8 lines permissible)
  • 12 syllables per line divided as 7-5
  • make a pause space between the 7 and 5 syllables

As today is our 25th wedding anniversary, I will focus my poem on my wife and I.

The day after I met you, it was clear to me
That I would call you up soon: my body shivered 
And I knew that if I called, destiny calls too
And twenty-five years later, destiny rings true

It really has been a wonderful journey, and Patty has been an inspiration, a comfort, and my best friend. This one is for the love of my life! Happy Anniversary Patty!

***As always thank to Colleen M. Chesebro – the challenge is here.***

I am a tree for #tankatuesday

/ boz bozeman / 12 Comments

This weeks challenge involves using this website to find out what tree you are. I am an alder. The characteristics that immediately caught my attention were “trailblazer” and “pathfinder”, since I spend so much time in the woods. 

Did I find this path?
It has been worn into soil
By thousands of feet.
Now I add my steps to it
My mind blazing a new way.

Although I often walk the same trails, they have a “same river twice” quality. I find that every hike is unique, and now matter how many times I walk the same path, my mind is renewed.

Have some fun and take the challenge here.