To wet your poetry appetite...
Here's a sample poem from each book.
I chose ones which are somewhat song orientated,
this being the web forum of the greatest living songwriter and all.
I hope you enjoy.
The first is from "(Y) A Collection of Poems From the 1992-2007 Chapbooks":
Morning Song
The mountains are gone.
Hills have all turned gray.
Rivers of black starlings
heading south for nine long days.
And I crave because I loved her,
but I’m trying to upgrade.
Sleeping in a catapult,
dreaming of the jade.
I want to kiss her like an archer,
bending back the bow,
pulling on the bowstring,
and releasing the arrow
into the constellation
where the ghosts of lovers go.
Light a candle for the conquered,
close my eyes and watch it glow.
Played a game of poker.
Lost a pair of queens.
Took my heart out for a beating.
Watched an opera from the wings.
And the song of dawn is humming
what it hasn’t learned to sing.
My currency’s uncommon.
It’s not worth suffering.
Somewhere there’s an ocean.
Somewhere there’s a glade.
Somewhere is an architect
digging with a spade.
And this morning came an answer
but the bed was never made.
Night has done gone left me.
Stars burn bright then fade.
©2007 Henry Long
This next one is from "Goat Love":
What’s Done
Your picture fell out from the Book of Job.
A mirror shattered and the clock went slow.
I turned the radio off but the song played on.
The river rose and took away the dam.
The preacher pointed at his fellow man.
You woke to find me sleeping naked on the lawn.
The fortune teller told a million lies.
The landlord left a note that said good-bye.
My last 2-bucks blew out the window and was gone.
Your open mouth on mine. Your falling hair.
My bed’s now empty and the cupboard’s bare.
Takes forever for the darkness to become dawn.
Polish the chains which bind the Pleiades.
Loosen the chords of painful memories.
No matter what you do, you can’t undo what’s done.
© 2007 Henry Long
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