Charles Pierre | Early April Violet

Early April Violet

 

 

An ordinary shift in the chilly wind

brings this seed to sprout amid braided debris,

just above the high-water line on a beach,

where the Nissequogue River enters the Sound.

All one can see are five frail petals

on a slender stem, with no visible leaves

to cushion them in such a punishing place,

where the life of a being so small is gauged

in days, and the thin light of early April

is the only tenderness this flower will sense,

exposed on a raft of dead grasses and reeds,

bent by onshore gusts as the new moon ascends,

when a spring tide floats the violet to sea.

 

 

This poem originally appeared in the author's poetry collection, Father of Water (2008).

 

 

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Charles Pierre was born in New York City in 1945 and raised in Centerport, New York. He studied at the University of Virginia and worked as a copywriter in Manhattan, where he has lived since 1973. Mr. Pierre is the author of five poetry collections: Green Vistas, Father of Water, Brief Intervals of Harmony, Coastal Moments, and Circle of Time.

Chris O’Carroll | Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon

 

Last week, you held one debut bloom aloft,

High harbinger of this outburst, this spree

Of petals tissue-flimsy, whisper-soft

Bowing you low with multiplicity.

Pale lavender around deep Concord grape,

These flowers pregnantly proliferate;

Their color scheme now bulks and droops your shape

As each brief blossom trumpets news of weight.

They furl at night and drop off soon enough,

Then you renew them day by spendthrift day,

Each with a core white spike of lacy fluff

Adding its lusty thrust to their display

Shouldering this mad splurge of fancy dress,

You curtsy to your own effusiveness.

 

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Chris O’Carroll is the author of two books of poems, The Joke’s on Me and Abracadabratude. His work also appears in An Amaranthine Summer (published in memory of Kim Bridgford), Extreme Sonnets, Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle, New York City Haiku, The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology, and multiple volumes of the Potcake Chapbooks series. He is a member of Actor’s Equity, and has performed widely as a stand-up comedian.