Three Short Poems


How long does a poem have to be? Ralph Waldo Emerson said that every word was once a poem. I haven’t read too many one-word poems lately, but several possibilities spring immediately to mind: Rose; Substance; Trolley; Hearth; Parting; Precipice. At the same time, there are words that might have started out as poems, but that now grate upon the ear, such as: Election; Referendum; Property; Focus. What it boils down to, I think, is that every word is a poem when it passes through a child’s lips, and every word becomes, to some degree, a weapon or prison in the mind of an
adult.

Here are three very short poems. “Hope” is my personal favorite, but “Atom Mind” is also thought provoking, and “Roadside Distress” is funny in a sadly picturesque sort of way. All three were published in Barbaric Yawp, where they fit conveniently at the bottom of a page, proudly fulfilling part of their poetic destiny. I humbly ask that you read each at least three times before passing judgment, and a dozen times before you write to tell me I know nothing about poetry. And if you do write, I humbly ask that you read your letter an equal number of times before sending it. That way we will have both wasted a similar amount of time, and come away from the experience refreshed.


Three Short Poems


Hope

In the park I see her,
caressing a fallen leaf
as if it were a hand.



Atom Mind

If less is more
then I will do nothing
and overwhelm
the world.



Roadside Distress

Skinny girls
pushing ugly babies
in strollers.



Note: Poems, Slightly Used, a growing collection of work first published in my blog, Recently Banned Literature, can be found here.






POETRY COLLECTIONS IN PRINT
Available from Cosmopsis Books of San Francisco


Winter Poems
by William Michaelian

Winter Poems (click to view cover)

ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4
US $11.95; $8.95 at Cosmopsis Books
52 pages. 6x9. Paper.
Includes one drawing.
San Francisco, June 2007
Signed, numbered & illustrated copies

Winter Poems displays the skills and abilities of Mr. Michaelian at their most elemental level, at the bone. Wandering amidst a barren world, a world scraped bare, he plucks the full moon like fruit from the winter sky, goes mad and befriends a pack of hungry wolves, burns his poems to keep warm. He is a flake of snow, a frozen old man, a spider spinning winter webs. Spring is only a vague notion of a waiting vineyard, crocuses, and ten-thousand babies. The author is alone, musing, reflecting, at times participating. But not quite alone, for he brings the lucky reader along. I’ve been there, to this winter world, and I plan to go back.

                                                            — John Berbrich, Barbaric Yawp



Another Song I Know — Short Poems
by William Michaelian

Another Song I Know (click to view cover)

ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1
US $13.95; $10.95 at Cosmopsis Books
80 pages. 6x9. Paper.
Includes Author’s Note.
San Francisco, June 2007
Signed, numbered & illustrated copies

Another Song I Know is a delightful collection of brief, resilient poems. Reading them, one by one by one, is like taking a walk through our common everyday world and suddenly hearing what the poet hears: the leaves, a coffee cup, chairs — and yes, even people, singing their songs of wisdom, sweetness, and light.

                                                            — Tom Koontz, Barnwood poetry magazine

Also by William Michaelian

POETRY
Winter Poems

ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4
52 pages. Paper.
——————————
Another Song I Know
ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1
80 pages. Paper.
——————————
Cosmopsis Books
San Francisco

Signed copies available



Main Page
Author’s Note
Background
Notebook
A Listening Thing
Among the Living
No Time to Cut My Hair
One Hand Clapping
Songs and Letters
Collected Poems
Early Short Stories
Armenian Translations
Cosmopsis Print Editions
Interviews
News and Reviews
Highly Recommended
Let’s Eat
Favorite Books & Authors
Useless Information
Conversation
Flippantly Answered Questions
E-mail & Parting Thoughts

Poetry, Notes & Marginalia:
Recently Banned Literature


Collected Poems by William Michaelian
A Larger Life
Monastery of Psalms
Revelation
Friends (includes French translation)
Summer of Dreams
Hunger
Is It His Coat?
The Boy Who Wrote Letters
Forty Days, Forty Nights
Papa’s Song (clam chowder blues)
The Pilgrim’s Way
A Christmas Wish
The Teacher
The Literary Awakening of America
The Healer
The Enigmatic Child
What Happened to God
Reading Tristram Shandy
A Prefix of Obscure Meaning
He Knows
My Only Friend
The World I Know
We Do Not Need a Poem
The More We Are Looking For
I Hear the Earth
What Will I Give You?
Great Minds Think Alike
The Age of Us All
I Met My Spirit
Claim Denied
Summer Days
Greek Peppers
Another Hard Day
James Joyce Singing
How Many Stones?
At the Armenian Home
The Peace Talks
The Eggs of March
Armenian Music
If Poems Were Days
Once Again I Lied
Frogs
One Last Thing
Everywhere I Go
Up Here On the Hill
Pumpkins
Winter View
What December Said to January
Winter Poems
Spring Haiku
How to Write a Poem, In Three Lessons
The Walls Have Ears
Why I Don’t Buy Grapes
To French Vanilla and All the Other Flavors
It Was
Early Morning Haiku
Someone’s Mother
Fall Questions
My Old Black Sport Coat
The Clerk and the Windmill
Roadside Distress, Part 2
Magical Realism (First Prize)
Café Poetry Night: Two Poems
Short Poem for Spring
Short Poem for Summer
I Find Him Eating Butterflies
For the Sister I Never Had
An Absurdist Play
The Second Act

Essay
Of Poets and Other Things

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