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University of Northern Iowa
Some MusicAuthor(s): Susan ElbeSource: The North American Review, Vol. 292, No. 2, The National Poetry Month Issue (Mar. -Apr., 2007), p. 7Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25478851 .
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N A R
ROBERT ABBATE
Tishbite Pottery Fragments I Kings 19:3-16
Underneath the broom tree shrub the fugitive sits down to die.
On a day's gnarled journey through the twisted wilderness,
a raven's wing scathes his head.
He feels the zealous urge to rise.
He eats the stone-baked bread,
and drinks the cool well draft
from the kilned bisque jar. At desolation's mountain,
whirlwind, earthquake, fire cannot voice the words of God.
He wraps his face in the sheer mantled silence, and his soul
breaks apart like the glaze-less earthenware's shattering shards.
SUSAN ELBE
Some Music
Across the room, a group of 20-somethings
winding down their pasta dinners, discover you can fret your finger on the rim
making even cheap wine flutes complain. At first, annoying, an assault on ears,
but later like the reel whine when a line is cast and catches sun,
its bright wick whipped against a sky so blue it hurts, reminding me of fishing with my father,
slap of lemon water on the boat's hull,
bluegills flopping in the bucket, arc of
laughter from the near shore,
my mother's death below the surface, that
perfect pitch of childhood vibrating in the gut.
FINALISTS JAMES HEARST POETRY PRIZE
March-April 2007 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 7
This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:10:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
