{"id":13581,"date":"2024-04-05T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T07:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=13581"},"modified":"2024-10-29T22:33:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T22:33:04","slug":"two-poems-paul-genega-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=13581","title":{"rendered":"TWO POEMS – PAUL GENEGA"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRING EGRET<\/strong>
\n 
\nLast summer this egret
\nhigh-stepped the salt marsh
\n 
\na white puff of grace
\nmore follies fan than bird
\n 
\nkeen eyes keeping watch
\nin the body\u2019s long curves
\n 
\nlike the f-holes of a cello
\nbending low to the sun
\n 
\nstained flats to spear a shad
\nswallow, cry in voice phlegmy
\n 
\nas an old woman in hospice
\nthe augury of tides \u2013
\n 
\nthis spring\u2019s fan of bone arrayed
\nin stony shallows, chill ripples
\n 
\nlapping leached beauty
\nbeginning the slow, slow dissolve
\n <\/p>\n

\n

 
\nEAST END ELEGY<\/strong>
\n 
\nfor Antje Katcher<\/em>
\n 
\nthe pink of our teens
\nhad long ago popped
\n 
\nconsuming passions
\nburnt down to nostalgia
\n 
\nera of firsts behind us
\nmarriages, jobs, failures
\n 
\nwe fit at last the patchwork
\ncostume called self<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

in a dimming afternoon
\nsummerscape we trudged
\n 
\nthe lip of a sand bluff
\npausing to gaze out
\n 
\non Cedar Point, Maidstone,
\nGardiner\u2019s Bay, Shelter Island
\n 
\nin the amethyst distance
\nOrient, disease-frizzed Plum<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

lee path choked with grape vine
\nbittersweet, pitch pine, rose
\n 
\nwindward, sheer drop
\nto a shell encrusted beach
\n 
\nblackbacks, scoters, plovers
\nancient skiff with rusted oarlocks
\n 
\nsplintered starboard gunwale
\nfisherwind rising for to ferry us away
\n <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

all this long ago, before
\nthe potato fields were blighted
\n 
\nbefore the hypno-rich arrived
\nto claim the sea as their mirror
\n 
\nbut I see us again there
\nand then, see how young
\n 
\nwe were without knowing it
\nhow happy without a clue
\n <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

how beautiful that day
\nthat shimmering stretch
\n 
\nof sea sand, perched high
\non the shifting lip of it
\n 
\nthe silence sweet and salty
\nwith all the time in the world
\n 
\nto say what needed to be said
\nall the time that never was
\n 
\n 
\n  (These poems have previously appeared in Outtakes: New and Selected Poems 1975-2023)<\/em>  
\n 
\n\"\"Paul Genega’s seventh full-length collection, Outtakes: New and Selected Poems 1975-2023<\/em>, was published by Salmon Poetry in December, 2023. Over a long career, his poems have appeared in scores of magazines and journals, including Poetry, New York Quarterly, The Nation<\/em> and North American Review.<\/em> He is Professor Emeritus at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University in New Jersey where he founded the creative writing program, taught literature and writing, chaired the Humanities Division, and served as Chair of Faculty. Visit him at www.paulgenega.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPRING EGRET   Last summer this egret high-stepped the salt marsh   a white puff of grace more follies fan than bird   keen eyes keeping watch in the body\u2019s long curves   like the f-holes of a cello bending low to the sun   stained flats to spear a shad swallow, cry in voice [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[453,149],"class_list":["post-13581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-mirror-by-chris-light","tag-wikicommons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13581"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13609,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581\/revisions\/13609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}