[[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

NIGHT OWL  
[[link removed]]


 

Patrick Daly

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ California poet Patrick Daly reflects on the reach, and limits, of
the imagination, where nature, art and politics intertwine in often
disturbing ways. _

, Broadstone Press

 

   _ In memoriam Rachel Corrie, murdered in Gaza, March 16, 2003_

The shriek of a metal blade cutting steel
was not, this evening, the sound of a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, built
to destroy houses;

it was the mating call of a barn owl in the top of the palm at the
corner, and then again,
and then a quieter reply from somewhere among the pines

and then again steel-slicing shrieks
(Owl, I know that hunger!)

It was nothing like the song of that starling Mozart wrote about to
his father—
the one he taught to whistle a tune from his G-major piano concerto,
correctly

except for replacing a natural with a sharp.
I lay in bed wandering from owl to Mozart

among night-thoughts, not getting up,
knowing I will never be Mozart sitting up by candlelight

into the early morning, hearing the piano and flute introduce the
theme
into his head full of oboes, bassoons, and horns.

No, I lay thinking of hungry farmworkers in Trumpist America,
afraid to meet the food caravan in Salinas,

thinking how lucky they are not to be in Netanyahu-ridden Gaza
where the crime of hunger is now punished with death.

What use to remember Rachel Corrie, standing between the dozer and
somebody’s home
her feet sliding as the driver kept pushing the growing mound of earth
toward her

until she disappeared? Only then
did he slowly back up, wait, and slowly lift his scoop.
 

_Patrick Daly lives in Menlo Park, California. Recently retired, he
has spent a a lifetime of lunch hours writing poetry, fiction, and
essays. His poem "Words" was a poem of the year in the New Statesman.
His first full-length collection is Grief and Horses (Broadstone Press
2021)._
 

* Protest
[[link removed]]
* Gaza
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit portside.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 



########################################################################

[link removed]

To unsubscribe from the xxxxxx list, click the following link:
[link removed]