Two poems from the physicist, Pushcart Prize nominee and co-founder of Poetry Santa Cruz.
One Day We Will Be Human
We will accept
the blessing of the bougainvillea
which has climbed to the roof
of the Felix Kulpa Gallery, over
the black I-beam and now
surrounds the green plastic chair,
the splendor of its red flowers
fierce in the sun.
—Len Anderson
This poem first appeared in Monterey Poetry Review.
From the House of Amphibian Song
When I forget to sing, it is a sad day.
When I remember
it is still a sad day, but at least I sing.
Each winter I mourn the passing of the green tree frogs
who lived in the field next door
before the tractors and houses came.
(I can do this without a thought
of the ones who lived here on this land
under my own home.)
Oh, when I walked out into the field,
stood stock still
as their thousands of voices filled the air.
Such changelings! I’ve seen them go
from green to grey to brown
to pure transparent
here in the warmth of my own hand.
And where are the garter snakes that fed on them,
where the hawk and kestrel?
Their song flowed from the pond and the green field,
mine whistles from the hollow
made by their loss.
Tonight I sing for us all.
—Len Anderson
This poem first appeared in Affection for the Unknowable (Hummingbird Press, 2003)
Poet and physicist Len Anderson is the author of Affection for the Unknowable (Hummingbird Press, 2003) and a chapbook, BEEP: A Version of the History of the Personal Computer Rendered in Free Verse in the Manner of Howl by Allen Ginsberg. He is a winner of the Dragonfly Press Poetry Competition, the Mary Lönnberg Smith Poetry Award and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is a co-founder of Poetry Santa Cruz.
Local Poets, Local Inspiration, edited by Robert Sward, appears weekly online at monthly in Santa Cruz Weekly. Selections are by invitation.
