alberta st octet

japanese maple nods in the planter box,
blood-red next to cedar lattice; rain beading

on a sign: garden seating— unoccupied;
blue bicycle staple lean & vacant near

the line of puddles where an amur maple’s bare
limbs shimmer, outstretched & oh so empty—blue

push pin stuck in a burl’s dense flesh: not one scrap
of poster left behind in this reflection



Jack Hayes
© 2016


11/15/16-11/19/16


Note: Only one octet today due to the sequencing of upcoming poems.

rainy monday quatrain

the pine’s elastic gestures in this wet breeze;
below, three white-framed windows, blinds opening—

beyond this picket fence’s circumspection:
landscape of rain, your eyes' difficult landscape


Jack Hayes
© 2016


11/14/16

Le Fils des étoiles

Today we begin our series of December Sunday music, which will feature Satie’s piano works. The initial piece actually was written as incidental music for a play of the same name by Joséphin Péladan. The music, which apparently was scored for flutes & harps, was composed in 1891 & premiered in 1892. No manuscript of the original score exists however, so it’s impossible to say how the scoring was arranged.

In 1896, Satie published a piano reduction of the score, which is what we’re hearing in the video, as played by an accomplished amateur pianist, Dider da Silva [http://dansesdetravers.blogspot.fr/]

For more information on Le Fils des étoiles, please see the Wikipedia entry.





Image connects to its source on Wiki Commons:
Original edition of Satie's Preludes from Le fils des étoiles (1896). This was Maurice Ravel's personal copy, which he later gave to Alexis Roland-Manuel
Public domain

december 1st quatrain

december 1st  quatrain


japanese maple leaves, so many red stars,
spangle the corner in a streetlight's white gaze—

nothing else this afternoon, just clouds blown east:
accept the gift as given—it will vanish


Jack Hayes
© 2016



Image:
Japanese maple foliage
N Borthwick Ave, Portland, OR 11/26/16 

Two Octets (Albina Ave)

albina ave octet #4


rose hips cluster orange under the stop sign;
the ornamental cherry, green leaves curling,

watches over anemone’s pale blossom
here where the avenue slopes to a curve—down

the street lily magnolia catkins gesture
quiescent in a standing meditation

catching morning light’s fragments—silver & gold
foil pinwheel spinning beside deadheaded roses


◦    ◦    ◦


albina ave octet #5


garden shed clad in Oregon license plates;
behind the wire fence dovetailed boxes tumbling

through weeds & trailing vines; no bus scheduled
for a quarter hour; the pale sun sinking &

rising from cloud currents—apples suspended
over the fence; on high boughs, white flesh exposed

by jays; on low, red gravity gathered for
the drop: all raw autumn all this letting go



Jack Hayes
© 2016


11/15/16-11/18/16

Two Octets (Vancouver Ave)

vancouver ave octet #1


breeze swirls off the river, its touch light & damp;
hornbeam leaves dazzle across the asphalt as

bicyclists glide south—orange sand bags weigh down
black plastic tarps in an excavated lot—

firethorn pomes flare up as the sun hits zenith;
over the stoplight this agitation of

crows; now pine boughs embrace golden leaf fall, now
traffic moves on with its lonesome one-way gasp


◦    ◦    ◦


vancouver ave octet #2


blue bus stop bench in leaf shadow’s quivering;
how frayed the hydrangea vines look scaling that

parking garage wall, for all their clenched new shoots—
maple seedkey spirals down, junco darts up,

hides in sweet gum’s canopy; rhododendrons
unfurl incrementally pink out of season—

the park’s giant go stones encircled; near them
the one woman may or may not be waiting



Jack Hayes
© 2016


11/14/16 & 11/15/16

Two Octets (Grand Ave & Multnomah St)

grand ave octet


grimy blue shirt wrapped around a sweet gum’s trunk;
foliage curling in a tattered circle—

storm cloud escalates west above Koin Tower,
nimbus glare envelopes layers gray as fish—

lime green streetcar accelerates past this
leaf shower; no one notices one touching

down next to my sneaker, one caressing the
crook of my arm: you really should have seen it!


◦    ◦    ◦


multnomah st octet

tight crabapple clusters against a white sky;
omnipresent crow on a soaring light pole

as if you were watching; the line of hornbeams
bare upright limbs, each sprouting a fern from rough

bark—there’s no other response; pansies’ sad dark
faces droop as if in thought, reflect the self

in one sense; speckled roses shrink on tall stalks:
if you would stand in that dormer you’d see them



Jack Hayes
© 2016


11/9/16 & 11/12/16