02 Mar TO CLOTHE WITH LOVE by Joseph Chamberlain
How can I maintain
my Granddad’s soul
in the land he loved –
the rolling maimed
and tree gloried
glens and fields
we hiked together raggedly
for years.
He had no nuclear dump
to cope with –
it’s innocent shaft
stemming above beloved pines
and winter wheat –
or the widening
of Park Road West –
grand row of Sugar Maples
cut and split.
Even
in this hilly gully
Castile graveyard
I misstep his Quaker-thwarted
headstone –
though remembered faces
tumble through my aging mind
from chiseled names
of neighbors.
His ‘life gifted’
modest Greek Revival
now a Boy Scout Clubhouse
where many books remain
on shelves
beside his stonework fireplace.
FOR SALE sign swings outside
in bucking wind.
Where shall we go
if not defiant
in a sun gouache
under gray-glow storm?
Our multi-billion eyes
gaze on riddled earth
a breath away from doom.
Though roadside weeds
grow tall
we still have roses for a few.
The gorgeous soil
raped and fallow
invites us to play perverse
and die
or clothe with love
to husband through
the planetary whirl –
the universal rile.
About the Poet
Joseph Chamberlain has had poems published in the Purchase Poetry Review and in Earth’s Daughters, as well as in The Buffalo News, in the 1980s, and in the Outriders Anthology in 2013. He studied poetry with John Logan at University of Buffalo. He co-founded and co-hosted Mostly Poetry and the Writers Place on WBFO radio in 1977-78 with Jeannie Hill, Penelope Prentice, and Jonathan Welch.
Chamberlain had two poems long-listed for the Fish Publishing International Poetry Prize, Cork, Ireland, (Billy Collins, judge) in 2021 and one poem shortlisted for the same prize in 2023. He is retired after a 40 year career as a Child and Family Services clinician. He has been a featured reader at two different 100,000 Poets for Change events, for the Outrider Anthology, and is an active participant in LitGarden Writers Group.
Related Event
- The Literary Café Series at the CFI will feature poets Joseph Chamberlain and Livio Farallo reading from their work on Wednesday, March 5th, at 7:30 p.m. at The Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Rd. in Amherst, NY. Ryki Zuckerman is the curator and host of the series. The event is free and open to the public..
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.