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Three poems

A single fruit had clung to leafless limbs

Persimmon

  • A single fruit had clung to leafless limbs
  • The entire month of ice and freezing rain.
  • It split in places round, as though seed comes
  • Out of season anyway and could retain
  • Some power to impregnate the unreceptive earth
  • Below, as though it simply need delay
  • And wait its turn for miracle and birth
  • To breathe again, and by its own long decay
  • Persuade the sweet and hidden world to bless.
  • It half persuaded me it spoke the truth.
  • I stopped and watched the muted light regress
  • Until inquisitive as a summer moth
  • I circled it in a maze imagining
  • The frost, the stars, the huddled birds all sing.

Anniversary Poem for My Wife

  • These lilies illuminate the woods on our day of light,
  • Discovered unexpectedly and Bengal bright.
  • Seeing them here transforms the path’s formidable ground
  • Into an original garden flowering unrestrained,
  • Where intimate rocks and rivulets pour moss and mist,
  • Whispering from that first thesaurus our own enchanted list
  • Of sacred names, of kings and martyrs, prophets, saints,
  • All pressed in a thirst of vellum the hungering paints.
  • This upward walk to find the water’s hidden source
  • Along half-eroded banks and leaning trees is ours.
  • Begun with a hushed half-laughing breath at the base,
  • Where the falls and winter ice or winds efface
  • The bold basalt, its slick ascent has left agape
  • Even native maidenhair, oakfern, and Oregon grape.
  • But now we know the climb, have heard the depth above,
  • Its steady swell to brimming time and trembling give.

Intruder

If an optimist is somebody who thinks everything will come out all right, I’m not. But, if it’s optimistic to think that the world is fundamentally a great wonder and a great order, yes, I subscribe to those things. – Richard Wilbur

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  • A squirrel is running Qs and Ls above my head.
  • I’m listening to confirm it’s really not a rat.
  • The sun is up, and light like a warm butter’s spread.
  • But I must be sure before my toast only that
  • Another cold outcast has not snuck in to feed,
  • Has not begun to call my walls its board and cot.
  • And so I get the pellets out and move the seed
  • Just a little to one side, the usual spot.
  • The evidence is there. She’s made her little bed.
  • Some quills and leaves, gnawed wire and hair packed in a knot,
  • All gray and brown and black, but for one long pink thread.
  • I lay the small dingy bowl down and measure out
  • A quarter level cup, just as the instructions said.
John Gallagher

John Gallagher holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature from the University of Dallas. He and his family live in Oregon, where he has worked on the administrative side of higher education for the past 15 years. 

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Persimmon

  • A single fruit had clung to leafless limbs
  • The entire month of ice and freezing rain.
  • It split in places round, as though seed comes
  • Out of season anyway and could retain
  • Some power to impregnate the unreceptive earth
  • Below, as though it simply need delay
  • And wait its turn for miracle and birth
  • To breathe again, and by its own long decay
  • Persuade the sweet and hidden world to bless.
  • It half persuaded me it spoke the truth.
  • I stopped and watched the muted light regress
  • Until inquisitive as a summer moth
  • I circled it in a maze imagining
  • The frost, the stars, the huddled birds all sing.

Anniversary Poem for My Wife

  • These lilies illuminate the woods on our day of light,
  • Discovered unexpectedly and Bengal bright.
  • Seeing them here transforms the path’s formidable ground
  • Into an original garden flowering unrestrained,
  • Where intimate rocks and rivulets pour moss and mist,
  • Whispering from that first thesaurus our own enchanted list
  • Of sacred names, of kings and martyrs, prophets, saints,
  • All pressed in a thirst of vellum the hungering paints.
  • This upward walk to find the water’s hidden source
  • Along half-eroded banks and leaning trees is ours.
  • Begun with a hushed half-laughing breath at the base,
  • Where the falls and winter ice or winds efface
  • The bold basalt, its slick ascent has left agape
  • Even native maidenhair, oakfern, and Oregon grape.
  • But now we know the climb, have heard the depth above,
  • Its steady swell to brimming time and trembling give.

Intruder

If an optimist is somebody who thinks everything will come out all right, I’m not. But, if it’s optimistic to think that the world is fundamentally a great wonder and a great order, yes, I subscribe to those things. – Richard Wilbur

Sponsored
Sponsored
  • A squirrel is running Qs and Ls above my head.
  • I’m listening to confirm it’s really not a rat.
  • The sun is up, and light like a warm butter’s spread.
  • But I must be sure before my toast only that
  • Another cold outcast has not snuck in to feed,
  • Has not begun to call my walls its board and cot.
  • And so I get the pellets out and move the seed
  • Just a little to one side, the usual spot.
  • The evidence is there. She’s made her little bed.
  • Some quills and leaves, gnawed wire and hair packed in a knot,
  • All gray and brown and black, but for one long pink thread.
  • I lay the small dingy bowl down and measure out
  • A quarter level cup, just as the instructions said.
John Gallagher

John Gallagher holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature from the University of Dallas. He and his family live in Oregon, where he has worked on the administrative side of higher education for the past 15 years. 

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April 25, 2019
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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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