26 Jan i was told that every poem was about the MOON (Three excerpts) by Ann Pedone
(1)
There is a language no one ever spoke. It has been recorded that
its words tasted of myrrh-bud and yellow
pear. Prepositions
were still covered with
moon dust. Nouns were held
together with verbs not unlike
petals to a stem. Vowels
swam in the veins of trees
thick
of sap
heavy
and
sweet.
It is said that a man who lived during the time
of Plato,
swallowed
this language
whole. He said it was easy to eat
as it
had consisted
of just one word: “bird.”
(2)
A friend of mine had just come back from Greece.
We were walking down Lexington
Avenue and he told me that the light
in New York is very
different
from the light in Athens.
When I asked him how that could be, he
laughed and said, “You’re a poet. You should
understand it better
than I do.”
(3)
It could almost bemusic this excess of heat
and yes spring is gathering (a promise)
the moisture of my body up into the clouds
could this be what makes the plum tree blossom
About the Poet
Ann Pedone is a poet and translator from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of The Medea Notebooks (Etruscan Press, 2023), and The Italian Professor’s Wife, winner of the 2022 Press 53 Award for Poetry, as well as the chapbooks The Bird Happened; perhaps there is a sky we don’t know: a re-imagining of sappho; Everywhere You Put Your Mouth; Sea [break]; and DREAM/WORK.
Her poetry, non-fiction, and reviews have recently appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Posit, Texas Review, ANMLY, and The American Journal of Poetry. She was a finalist for the 2024 Levi’s Prize. Ann is the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal and small press, αntiphony.
Related Event
- Ann Pedone will join the Buffalo-based artist Chango, poet Diego Espíritu, and host Thom Eichelberger-Young in LIMITED PALATTE 02, a Blue Bag Press sponsored evening of readings and performances from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, February 1st at THE TEMP at 777 Main St. in Buffalo. Admission is free and open to the public.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.