Dog’s footprint in the muddy sidewalk
here where the slab has shifted and sunk
a miniature alluvial plane has grown
I take yellow bucket and a milking stool
scrape up the unwilling earth
with any gardening tool I can find
haul it to the backyard—a small pile
for all that trouble—my knees and back
don’t like this kind of work
Roots of a departed maple tree
have rotted away—the sidewalk slants
and traps rain—my Sea of Azof
Standing in my front doorway
those years back watching rain
and hearing its pink noise my own waterfall
I saw the wind take down the tree
or I saw the letting go a fall so fast
I still saw it standing only the rain falling
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 22, Issue 1.
Charles Wyatt is the author of two collections of short fiction, a novella, and two poetry chapbooks. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, The Philadelphia Musical Academy, and Warren Wilson College. He presently teaches for UCLA Extension and in the Low Residency MFA Program of the University of Nebraska. Before devoting himself exclusively to writing and teaching, he was principal flutist of the Nashville Symphony for 25 years.
See all items about Charles Wyatt
Variation 5 (with repeats),
by Charles Wyatt
moth on the glass and the
moth on the window screen
ever so lightly my fingers
on the screen and the moth flies up
lighter than my fingers
this is the moth
both unbidden and inevitable
a curving streak toward and away
from the light curving
like the edges of the shouldering moon
but the moth on the glass
grows larger in its waiting
something more important is coming
than this thin drumming my fingers
these fingers drumming upon the keyboards
never stopping to breathe hands on knees
these are fingers and the moths are flying
beyond waiting but also
moon reaching through the glass
the moth in the night and the
(da capo)
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 15, Issue 1.
Charles Wyatt is the author of two collections of short fiction, a novella, and two poetry chapbooks. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, The Philadelphia Musical Academy, and Warren Wilson College. He presently teaches for UCLA Extension and in the Low Residency MFA Program of the University of Nebraska. Before devoting himself exclusively to writing and teaching, he was principal flutist of the Nashville Symphony for 25 years.
See all items about Charles Wyatt
2011 Pushcart Prize Nominees
The Editors of Cider Press Review would like to congratulate our 2011 Pushcart Prize nominees:
- Tim Suermondt, When I Get There, If I Get There
- Doug Ramspeck, Black Tar River
- Sharon Olson, Heavenly Bodies Along the Rail
- Charles Wyatt, Mirknight
- Wendy Drexler, American Detritus
- Lisken Van Pelt Dus, The Uses of Appetite
Read their nominated poems online in Cider Press Review, Volume 12.