poetry reading tonight

Reading poems tonight with Michael Montlack & David Groff, with music by Window Dancer in Ridgewood (my old stomping grounds).

a poem by david groff

I highly recommend David Groff's new collection Clay (Trio House Press). The poems are deeply moving and sometimes playful and witty, with perceptive ruminations on the pain, joy, and eroticism of the human experience.



Below is a poem from the book,"Scavenger."











Scavenger


Yes, like this gull
buzzing the fishing boat,
teased out to sea
too far to fly
if he could not light
on the scaly deck,
lured by guts
the world splits open,
improbably white,
taking to heart
the free debris
and worthless fish,
the castaway who
refuses no refuse,

or this vulture
eying the dying,
patroller of roads,
a hungry undertaker,
savoring stink
the others shirk,
beyond disdain,
doing a favor,
the desert shadow
unflappably there,
no predator but
the death of the party,
his claw an embrace,
his eye on the sparrow.





David Groff’s book Clay was selected by Michael Waters for the Louise Bogan Award and was just published by Trio House Press. An independent book editor, he teaches in the MFA program at the City College of New York.

photo by Alan Barnett

a poem by david groff

Chant


To folk before the rood
it colored the air like the glass,
echoed beyond belief.
The certifiers of God

pronounced it the sound of the soul
slipping the traces of plow,
promising great beyondness,
beyond the sheep on the close.

The purified mouths of men,
their tone absent of organ,
the doubt of vibrato forgotten
like sketches of perspective,

exhort the stricken me
here in this beachside condo
that I am offered God,
as naked before the window

I wrestle my angel of Clay,
their CD’d voices bleeding
their sated, unstained avowal—
to hell with my ocean howl.


"Chant" originally appeared in Barrow Street


David Groff’s Theory of Devolution was selected by Mark Doty for the National Poetry Series. With Philip CLark, he has edited the anthology Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS.