-John Berryman

At the End of the Day

A simple place to write with a friendly pub nearby.
Land to grow vegetables and herbs for our evening stew.

A landscape of pasture lands, a river nearby for fish,
the cheap cuts of steer or pig, a plucked chicken

(save the parts for stock). A cast iron pan. Good wine.
A quiet place to read where the land stretches its legs,

reminds us that we are humbled eternally by grace and
beauty. To know these moments is our only ambition.

At the end of the day you come home to what you are.
The corporate ladder is climbed primarily to patch walls and

change light bulbs. The serene young blonde at the corner bar
has aspirations. She will either live them or not, both results

equally poignant. The loons defend their twilight, blue-grey
mystics in a perpetual stance of expectation, until their wings

explode in the urgent energy of exploration. Mythic dances
unfold unobserved. These are our first angels. The moon in

daylight pretends to be a cloud. Nimbus or cumulus, I’m unsure.
In daylight the moon is a won ton, cloud-swallowing minister,

the monk who chops wood before and after enlightenment.
Wood chips on the grill smoke white cloud riffs against the sky.

The clouds themselves are thin fish bones; sky soup. The breeze
moves through us at the same pace as clouds. The moon

remains still. The moon is a skull in this light, not threatening but
ponderous. Strange dreams flow out of it that remind you of the

long poem by Harrison. The moon in daylight said this to me:
You are the changing line in the I Ching symbol that suggests

you will be a great man one day. I am buckled by the notion,
having no such pretensions. The old man who told me we are

born with nothing has it wrong. We come into this world
with everything. We leave with everything.

-Martin Bartels

c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels
Martin A. Bartels is an accomplished writer whose career in journalism and communications spans almost 30 years. His poems have appeared in Poetry24, the Found Poetry Review, and Verse Wisconsin. He has written for more than 100 print and online publications around the world, including AOL CityGuide, the Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun-Times, and dozens of regional and community newspapers. He has held several leadership positions at national and international nonprofit organizations. Bartels lives in northern Virginia with his wife, two children, a cat, and a golden retriever. You can follow his poetry blog at Difficult River.

Now, with over 130,000 hits and long lists of wonderful readers and thoughtful, engaged commentary, NinaAlvarez.net really lives separately from me.

I feel that the creation of this site and everything that happens here has had very little to do with me and more to do with the spirit of poetry. So much more powerful and intoxicating and healing than our current paradigm can make sense of.

All I know is, the more I stay out of the way, the better.

Therefore, in honor of the Fifth Anniversary, I’d like to share a poem from one of our readers…it could be you. Please submit an original poem about the life of poetry. Submit your poem either as a comment to this post, or email me directly at: nina@dreamyourbook.com.

Winner will be published at the blog.

Submit between now and the end of the day on March 7, 2012.

Good luck!

This is the fluid in which we meet each other,
This haloey radiance that seems to breathe
And lets our shadows wither
Only to blow
Them huge again, violent giants on the wall.
One match scratch makes you real.

At first the candle will not bloom at all –
It snuffs its bud
To almost nothing, to a dull blue dud.

I hold my breath until you creak to life,
Balled hedgehog,
Small and cross. The yellow knife
Grows tall. You clutch your bars.
My singing makes you roar.
I rock you like a boat
Across the Indian carpet, the cold floor,
While the brass man
Kneels, back bent, as best he can

Hefting his white pillar with the light
That keeps the sky at bay,
The sack of black! It is everywhere, tight, tight!
He is yours, the little brassy Atlas –
Poor heirloom, all you have,
At his heels a pile of five brass cannonballs,
No child, no wife.
Five balls! Five bright brass balls!
To juggle with, my love, when the sky falls.

-Sylvia Plath

Twilight is a threshold time,
a corridor, a port,
a melting pot, a thing sublime,
where light and dark consort.

It is a grail, a cup,
for dual absolutions.
It softens stark extremes
and beckons toward solutions.

The hero wakes in twilight,
past crushing, clashing rocks.
In his begging bowl is insight,
carried home to feed the flocks.

In days gone by, this hero
was the seer, was the sage.
Now, he’s a twilight poet,
who sings to a twilight age.

Find his middle way,
and its truth that does denote us.
For at twilight’s balance point,
dwells the jewel within the lotus.

-Michael Haugh

I am extraordinarily pleased to share this special poem written recently by one of the most influential teachers in my life, Michael Haugh. At 15 years old, I was sent from public school to private school after nearly failing out my freshman year. Here I met Mr. Haugh, a no-nonsense teacher; a large and imposing man to whom I sensed – and still sense – I must bring my best. He believed in me and being, for the most part, terrifying made that even more effective.

Michael Haugh’s encouragement of my abilities as a writer and thinker changed my life and set me on a course for honors English, then AP English, then a bachelors and master’s in English, and finally into careers as a professor, writer, editor, and publisher.

Michael P. Haugh was born in Brooklyn, NY on October 25, 1945. He graduated from The Aquinas Institute of Rochester, NY in 1963. He matriculated at St. Bonaventure University. He obtained a B.A.in English in 1967 and an M.A. in English Literature in 1969. He, also, acquired an M.A. in Diversified Studies from Brockport State University in 1985. For forty years he taught English, Journalism, Theology, and Creative Writing at Cardinal Mooney H.S. and at The Aquinas Institute, both located in Rochester, NY.

In addition to classroom responsibilities, he also held the administrative positions of Dean of Students and English Departmental Chair, and served several years as Campus Minister and the coach of boys’ varsity golf and freshman basketball. In 2007, the year of his retirement, Michael was a recipient of the Singer Award for Excellence in Secondary Education from The University of Rochester. Michael is married to Stephanie Haugh, is presently retired, and continues residence in Rochester, NY. They have three married sons, seven grandchildren, and two dogs.