A Pilgrim's Progress
A poem by KC Wilder
went like gypsy davy
traipsing hazy fjord and forest,
whirled
knee deep in mudfields.
stood tall on
the hills and mountains
craned my neck but
could not see.
investigating
in this way
unfortunately netted little.
so in time
i had to blow,
mounted on
my beat up bike,
quickly wheeled
through nameless woods
and lit out
on demanding hikes.
went through towns
he must have blown through
and not left a trace.
like cassini,
circled saturn,
jupiter and mars,
in my beat up black sedan
i circled round the seven stars,
checked out beantown
broke in charleston
passed through
cobweb-covered stations,
asking people
have you seen him?
i believed somebody had.
maria ouspenskaya
almost tearing off my hand,
she blew smoke out from her ears
and warned of wild mystery man.
through a thousand towns
i motored in
my stratospheric van.
i scraped across
the bleeding edge
from portland to afghanistan.
stood beside
the howling mad
empire of experience
and found heaped on outsized plates
the unmistakeable pointed reek
of my own
inner
monster.
maria ouspenskaya — crusty, diminutive, wizened-faced
actress who played clairvoyant trannsylvanian gypsy in
1930s classic films “frankenstein” and “the wolfman.”
It was she who warned Lon Chaney Jr. He had “the sign
of the pentagram” in his hand. “When de moon is full
and de volfbane blooms … ”
Fall 2006 Poetry:
READING HOPKINS IN PALOS VERDES
by Andrew Demcak
REFLECTIONS ON WRITING by Jann
Burner
THEY BUILT A WALL AROUND THE OCEAN
by Lily Bower
VISITING CAVE CREEK by Nicholas
Messenger
PUBLISHER'S NOTE and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
by Benjamin Bucholz
THERE IT IS by Hannah Price
GEOMETRY AND A LETTER by Laura
McKee
SENEGALESE GROVE by Holly Day
AFRICA by Kathryn Wagner
DEFINITION OF A TREE by Christine
Hamm
AFTER MY NAME IS SPOKEN by Meridith
Gresher
SHAPES IN THE AIR by Carolyn
Syrgley-Moore
NEITHER FISSION NOR FUSION by Ed
Tato
CLEAVINGS by Hank Kalet
A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS by KC Wilder
WHAT YOU WOULD CALL A LOOSE GHAZAL, I
REGARD AS
ANOTHER SMALL, BUT NECESSARY, STEP TOWARD RECOVERY by James
R. Whitley
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