BIO
.
.Ralph Angel’s latest collection, Your Moon, was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 received the 2007 PEN USA Poetry Award, and his Neither World won the James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets. In addition to five books of poetry, he also has published an award-winning translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song. For more, please visit http://ralphangel.com
Nature
.
Looking through trees strangely into nature.
.
A window, an air-conditioner, a wall covered with ivy.
.
The book on your lap. Your head tilted back.
.
Like handling cups or pennies, a shovel, a stone.
.
Like where an arm is found, or where the tangled limbs go.
.
A bookshop, a fruitstand. You wake up and there you are, and there you are.
.
“Do we have any cookies, or something nice?”
.
Toward the east outstretches the shadow. On the left a plywood lake.
.
Gods and horses playing in the fountain. A conch shell. A robe.
.
The swallows, the sandstorms, a pink fire in the clouds.
.
And the generator, the chain and the pulley. Unheard-of laughter and
prayer.
.
The long exhalation. Of baskets and flutes.
.
Of bracken. Of reed. Of cypress and olive, pelvis and spine.
Three shoes on a doorstep. Of human unfinished.
.
The spirit in time.
.
.
Conversation
.
So I took a walk
inside. You’re alone
when morning
comes.
Watching you sleep in
is better
.
than oatmeal,
even Irish
oatmeal,
that thing you do
so well.
.
When you were a fish
you were a salmon.
I know, I’m
slow, I
know.
.
November’s a nice day
to be. The ocean’s
near.
Your fog
is
.
everywhere.
.
So I
talked to I, I said
f**k death, everyone
I meet knows
someone
.
I know. I said
it’s nice to be happy,
but no one
believes
me.
.
Take your time,
my love. The logs have lit
the fire.
The sweet scent
of your hair
.
kisses
my mouth, and I
kiss you back,
and pour
the tea.
.
.******
