The Federal Poet Fall 2012 Detail, Washington National Cathedral Facade by Coulter The Federal Poet Fall 2012 Vol. LXX, No. 2 THE FEDERAL POETS c/o 11919 Moss Point Lane, Reston VA 20194 http://blehert.com/TheFederalPoets/poetindex.html facebook.com/TheFederalPoets Introduction THE FEDERAL POETS is the oldest continuously active poetry group in the Washington D.C. area. First convened in 1944, it is a membership organization open to all poets without regard to race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or political affiliation. Members of the Federal Poets meet at the Tenley Public Library, 4450 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, DC, on the third Saturday of every month to read, analyze and discuss their poetry. Visitors are always welcome. Members and visitors who are planning to attend should bring 16 to 20 copies of a recently written poem for distribution to those present. The poem will then be discussed with a view to enhancing its chances for publication. The Tenley Library is located near the Tenleytown-AU Metro on the Red Line. There is some parking in the library lot and street parking within easy walking distance. The chief aims of this organization are to improve the members’ poems by the exchange of constructive criticism and to increase their exposure through publication and readings. The Federal Poet, containing the best poems submitted by members, is published semiannually. Local and corresponding members receive it and may submit poems to the editor for consideration and publication. For membership information, write us or visit our website. Copyright © 2012 by The Federal Poets. All rights revert to authors upon publication. Subscription for non-members(U.S.) $15.00 (2 issues including standard mailing) ISSN 1041-4886 President, Federal Poets: Don Illich Vice President: Judith McCombs Treasurer: Pam Blehert Membership: Cary Kamarat Editor: Pam Coulter Blehert Publication design and typesetting: Words & Pictures East Coast Cover Design & cover art: Pam Coulter Published by THE FEDERAL POETS Table of Contents The Names Of Things .....................................................................1 Dean Blehert Word List .........................................................................................2 Mary M. Sesso Knowledge ......................................................................................3 Edna Small Dew Into Others ..............................................................................4 Lee Giesecke Aubade ............................................................................................5 Edna Small The Blessing of Peacocks .............................................................6 Miles David Moore Rite of Spring ..................................................................................7 Tim Hudenburg Yuccas .............................................................................................7 Charles Gerald DuBose Jr. My Answer to Your Poem ...............................................................8 Marjorie Sadin After a Long Absence ...................................................................9 Herb Guggenheim The Escape Artists .......................................................................10 Don Illich Earbuds .........................................................................................11 Cary Kamarat All a-Twitter ...................................................................................11 Cary Kamarat Red Makes Me Feel Like Running ...............................................12 Mary Sesso Color Wheel ...................................................................................13 Pam Blehert Jaylen ............................................................................................14 Marjorie Sadin Fate ................................................................................................15 Alec McRae A Message .....................................................................................16 Pamela Passaretta Taos Pueblo Artist ........................................................................17 Sandy Goldsmith Haiku ..............................................................................................18 Nadine Rogers So-Terry .........................................................................................19 blair ewing Dingle Peninsula...........................................................................20 Bonnie Naradzay The Rendering ..............................................................................21 Andrew Jarvis The Mushroom Island ..................................................................22 Ninie G. Syarikin Time for Grapefruit .......................................................................23 Beth Stone Truss Bridge..................................................................................24 Alec McRae September Twilight .......................................................................25 Ingeborg Carsten-Miller Shaping the Wind-Laughter .........................................................26 Ginger Ingalls I Stepped on a Crack ....................................................................27 Edna Small A Feast of Words ..........................................................................28 Ron Vardiman Stopped Just Short ......................................................................29 Clyde A. Wray Fallen Evergreen...........................................................................30 Mary Westcott The Qualities of Help ....................................................................31 Pam Blehert Gone ..............................................................................................32 Alec McRae The Names Of Things Death is no big thing. When I met him, he looked like me, but without the beard. An old friend turned up the same day, but said nothing much. When I went upstairs to my room, just to change clothes, the one who was me went along, as if to change clothes too. “Who are you?” I asked: “You aren’t just someone.” He replied:”You are the one who refuses to know the names of things.” Then he was close before my face, breathing on me; I let go, drifted like a feather, hearing from his mouth my own and other voices saying who I was, what I’d done, accusatory, I guess, but not close to me. Then he blew me back into the tightness of my temples. There the dream stopped. (I never went back downstairs.) Overcast dripping morning, walking the dogs, who stare mutely as usual as I leave, then wet asphalt, the freeway, thinking, soon I’ll die; then thinking, no, it’s this distance, this letting go, happening now: “Soon I’ll die” is just a name for it. If we name things truly, they become themselves and can leave us. Death, too, is the name of a dream that is going away. Dean Blehert 1 The Federal Poet Word List Some words don’t stand around with their hands hanging at their sides. They’re busy trying to catch our attention. A few are plug-ugly. Slud and slub come to mind as does niche, which forces the lips to mimic the shape of a toad. Bilious, like a preacher dressed in black, brooks no argument. It just is. Serendipity sounds syllable-happy— if it were a company, it would reorganize then pronounce itself, ser-pity. This just in. Pretty mellifluous showed up at a photo op wearing six consonants in a tiara and swore they were diamonds. Nurturer fizzles and sparkles ever so gently. It walks around in bedroom slippers— the quiet angel we aspire to be, though more than half will flunk the test. Then there’s hussy—all impolite red lips, skirt hiked up, a three-alarm fire strutting in rhinestone heels that click down Main Street. Any sweet trick can flag us down and seem dear as gold, but will turn godawful pale if not dipped in sweat now and then and set on fire. Mary M. Sesso Published in Zillah 2 Fall 2012 Knowledge I can only write about what I don’t know What I know slips like a minnow between pen and page Edna Small 3 The Federal Poet Dew Into Others When you favor the right to end a pregnancy you’re called pro-choice. You envision a world where all children are chosen. But you’re pro-life in the sense that fewer species will become extinct. Your motto: If only all could say, “I was wanted.” When you force a woman to have a child she does not want you’re called pro-life. You envision a world where no potentially conscious creature is ever killed. But you’re pro-choice in the sense that others have the right to agree with you. Your motto: When I fucks ‘em, they stays fucked. Lee Giesecke 4 Fall 2012 Aubade My mouth furry with the morning I fight to curl beneath the down that blankets me. My mind floats free. I know more now than I will know when I rinse sticky slumber from my lids, swirl mint against my teeth and tongue, tingle awake. Even as I put my glasses on my vision fades. Desire morphs into doubt. Pros and cons confound me. Glaring screens, staccato news, assault me. I have lost silence. Edna Small 5 The Federal Poet The Blessing of Peacocks for Hilary Tham It was dusk at St. Mary’s; the last of the light whispered down lawns that sloped to the inlet. You were parking your van with the Chinese horses rampant where you painted them on the hood when, square on the grass in front of us, a peacock fanned in full his courtship feathers of lime, teal, coral, lapis lazuli. I joked I didn’t realize your van resembled a peahen so lusciously. But this is what I’ve always wished for you: the unexpected blessings of jeweled nature, pure scenes of grace that