Language
Three New Poems
Here are my latest poems in the spring 2022 issue of Muddy River Poetry Review.
A Book for Poetry Month
April is poetry month. Enjoy poetry everyday. Maybe you’ll pick up a copy of Truth’s Truth at Kelsay Books, Amazon, or through Indie Books to help you celebrate.
Forest Bathing
Forest Bathing
There was that morning we took a walk
Along that wooded path around the lake
To escape the rising noise of the day,
The chatter of news that seemed to drown us.
Sun filtered through the just-leafing trees,
Warming us and heating the still damp ground.
Dormant leaves, as if having their own mind,
Began to rise in a swirling ballet
Opposite of their long spiral from branch
To earth, where we expected them to stay,
Resting in decay. We were struck silent.
This defiant dance filled our heads with thoughts
Of magic, of incomprehensible
Forces bent on overthrowing nature’s
Constitution, supplanting what should be
With a new unthinkable order, but
Even leaves rising on a windless path,
An event that seems to topple reason
Has explanation, if only we trust fact.
- J. Kleponis, Wilderness House Literary Review 16/3, Fall 2021
Light in Morning
July sky
July meteor
bursting across the sky –
a Roman candle
– J. Kleponis, the Mainichi Daily News, Japan, August 8, 2009.
Troubled Night
a mosquito
a dripping faucet
a sleepless night
– J. Kleponis, Failed Haiku, Vol. 2, No. 19, June 2017.
Sunset
a red rose
against a field of green –
a June sunset
-J. Kleponis, NDR, Summer 2007.
Echoes
except for the rain
spattering on the rooftop
the house is silent –
I cannot even recall
the echo of your footsteps
-J. Kleponis, MET, Vol 3, No. 4, 2009.
Hope
a letter from you
these watery pools of ice
a single crocus
the call of an oriole –
the hope that is my core
-J. Kleponis, Eucalypt, No. 4, 2008.
Pieces of My Mind 