Pedone - I Was Told That Every Poem...

 

Ann Pedone i was told that every poem was about the MOON (Three excerpts)

(1)

There is a language no one ever spoke. It has been recorded that 

its words tasted of myrrh-bud and yellow 

pear. Prepositions 

were still covered with

moon dust. Nouns were held 

together with verbs not unlike 

petals to a stem. Vowels 

swam in the veins of trees

thick 

of sap 

heavy 

and 

sweet. 


It is said that a man who lived during the time

of Plato, 

swallowed 

this language

whole.  He said it was easy to eat 

as it 

had consisted 

of just one word: “bird.”

(2)

A friend of mine had just come back from Greece. 

We were walking down Lexington 

Avenue and he told me that the light 

in New York is very 

different 

from the light in Athens. 

When I asked him how that could be, he 

laughed and said, “You’re a poet. You should 

understand it better 

than I do.”


(3)

It could almost be           music         this excess of heat

and yes              spring is gathering (a promise)

the moisture of my body up into the clouds

could   this be what makes the plum tree blossom


Ann Pedone graduated from Bard College in 1992 with a degree in English Literature. She has a Master’s degree in Chinese Language and Literature from UC Berkeley. Ann is the author of the chapbook "The Bird Happened." More recently her work has recently appeared in Ornery Quarterly, Unbroken Journal, Riggwelter, Main Street Rag, Poet head, and Cathexis Northwest among others. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.