Poetry happens.
Intelligence doesn’t create it.
Talent is no guarantee.
Hard work mistakes it
For something else.
In the saddest scenario
Poetry appears, indifferent;
As police search your car
Lines of it detain you;
Ecstatic coactions
Of love, banal poetry;
A barren place, a singing wind;
An unexpected guest
Or confirmation of results.
Stop pretending.
Poetry happens.
Uncategorized
Earth Facts
Atrocities of the autopsy table,
Cutting a corpse from its roots,
First incision to undergrowth.
Could identity be separated
From earth’s long anonymity?
Let’s examine integration
Before extracting information
From an eco-system and deep self
Confounded with the same evil.
In the seasons of a forest
Time of death is natural duration
Accumulating burial in absence.
Doctors dissect a living death.
They pick over a wild garden
And dance round a green fire.
With the irrigation of the remains
All hands are stained with dead inquiry.
Economics of Snow Removal
Those who work in snow removal
feed their families with hours of night.
Where truck and plow won’t go
they shovel later than you know.
They break their backs and curse—
hoping the snow will end and never end.
The Angel
When the Angel enters your room
Language describes itself,
Like a river of silt growing clear.
When the Angel enters your room
Your sadness is lifted
And desperation delivered.
When the Angel is beside you
The light in your room
Is set ablaze by a rational fire.
When the Angel is near
Love is the body of love
That casts the shadow of love.
When the Angel is at your window
The light embraces you
With the space it creates.
When the Angel is at the door
You’re confirmed to a place
Rendered divine in its place.
When the Angel touches you
Your senses know the suns
They mirror in the warmth of the sun.
When the Angel comes by night
You see how the stars
Bestow the gift of each other’s gift.
What is a poet
The first to walk across a snowfall
To recognize Eden
Speak the country of silence
Cast spells against time
Resolve decay
Make multiple heart donations
Practice empathy
And symmetrical peacemaking
Craft things unseen
List the clouds
Condense night
Love the shadow of a lover
Accept death as revision
Snowflakes
On such a night it’s unclear
How many make it home
Get blown far
Fall from higher
Are prisms needles fernlike
Are columns
Enfold a star
Last the night
Shatter or remain intact
Coexist
Continue through
Become buried
Touch lips
Cover eyes
Kiss creation
Maria Theresa Ala
Maria Theresa Ala of New York Harbor
The ocean crashes back
Beautiful Maria Theresa of Ellis Island
History crashes back
Mother of exiles enlightening the world
Maria Theresa of passenger ships
Adrift in the absence of time
Maria Theresa Ala of America
Vineyards spring up in song
Maria Theresa America
Immigrant of echoes and incarnations
Brooklyn Maria Theresa Ala
Mother of strong mothers of freedom
Gaetano Ala
Gaetano Ala played guitar
Gaetano juggled grenades
And gardened in mustard gas
Gaetano smoked Gauloises
Got lost in the gaze
Of a Greek beauty in Algiers
Gained passage to Paraguay
Growing homesick again
For mother Mediterranean
Gaetano Ala played guitar
Gaetano smoked Gauloises
Immigrant and migrant
A grave in every ground
Great-great-grandparent ghost
Gaetano of ancient Gaeta
Gaetano Ala Gaetano
The margins of a designation
Grammarians agree
Wings of time and nothingness
Poetic Observation
Lately I’ve been standing at my window to write. Then I return to my desk. Then I go back to the window. After a morning of this back and forth, I realize I’m writing a poem on both sides of a pane of glass.
The Music’s Paid
Breath and brass are familiars
Blending soulful elements
Woods mimic habitat
And voice a common life
All over the world
A percussion is being heard
Strings fuse vibrations
And the earth shudders
Time piecemeals music
To save us from the din
Set in motion
It sways a deafened god
The music’s paid
Let us dance until we love
Salvatore Ala 