Marc Frazier
On the Periphery
—We live on the porch of a palace and have forgotten the palace completely.
Discover the Buddha
How can we still love paintings of the sea,
the luminous fish of coral reefs?
On land, the gentian’s blue pulse
in a spring no one sees coming
so busy wrestling with death–
better bare bones, the carcass?
A poet knows he’s a useless person
This is a good thing
This is how sea dreams come to us
or art without a focal point
Now some among us label others
as those who have only been damagers
or witnesses to damage as if
these accusers have never sinned
as if the wheat and bone
of existence was theirs alone
in a world where the poet as Sun King
that no one else sets before has collapsed
Ahkmatova asked who mourns
one woman in a holocaust
What quote might this woman utter
for a plaque in a museum?
Something about heaps of corpses, piles of shoes?
waltz of shadows, the sound of piano keys?
From the porch of the palace: winter puddles,
a fawn in mist, the myth of death
Discover the Buddha
How can we still love paintings of the sea,
the luminous fish of coral reefs?
On land, the gentian’s blue pulse
in a spring no one sees coming
so busy wrestling with death–
better bare bones, the carcass?
A poet knows he’s a useless person
This is a good thing
This is how sea dreams come to us
or art without a focal point
Now some among us label others
as those who have only been damagers
or witnesses to damage as if
these accusers have never sinned
as if the wheat and bone
of existence was theirs alone
in a world where the poet as Sun King
that no one else sets before has collapsed
Ahkmatova asked who mourns
one woman in a holocaust
What quote might this woman utter
for a plaque in a museum?
Something about heaps of corpses, piles of shoes?
waltz of shadows, the sound of piano keys?
From the porch of the palace: winter puddles,
a fawn in mist, the myth of death
--
Marc Frazier has published in well over a hundred fifty journals. His latest poetry book If It Comes To That won Silver in the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Awards contest. Marc is an LGBTQ author and photographer living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Marc Frazier has published in well over a hundred fifty journals. His latest poetry book If It Comes To That won Silver in the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Awards contest. Marc is an LGBTQ author and photographer living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.