The Collins Poetry Residency is established in honor of the Richard Collins family and their contributions to and encouragement of poets and poetry in the Iowa/Illinois Quad Cities and the Upper Mississippi River Valley. The residency supports community-based poetry and a regional poet who resides in the six-county Quad City area (Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, Scott, Clinton, Muscatine).

2010 Poet-in-Residence is Salvatore Marici of Port Byron

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Luke Deitrick: Breeze

This one of the three poems I will publish before closing the journal.

Luke Deitrick hails from the city of Springfield, Ill., but is now proud to call the cornfield sea known as Geneseo home. He participated in the Young Emerging Writers program for two years before finally yielding to the curse of old age. Even so, the toaster will continue to toast.

Luke wrote, “The inspiration for Breeze came from a lakeside fishing cabin in Canada. Each morning, the window overlooking the nearby lake offered a thick fog masked breathtaking scenery, until one morning, everything except for the dock. The idea is that one detail of a place, no matter how simple, can be integral in releasing the overall beauty.” The repetition of the poem builds suspense and then it ends like a blackout. I do not know what format this poem is in or if it is a formal form, so I am calling it Luke’s form.

Breeze

Up one morning
and out the window,
the wind waltzed the water,
And the dock wavered.

Up one morning
and out the window,
the wind waltzed the water
and gave the eager leaves a voice,
And the dock wavered.

Up one morning
and out the window,
the wind waltzed the water
gave the eager leaves a voice
and beckoned eyes to the paint palette sky,
And the dock wavered.

Up one morning
and out the window,
the wind waltzed the water
gave the eager leaves a voice
beckoned eyes to the paint palette sky-
to shower color to the stage where the wind waltzed the water,
While the dock wavered.

Up one morning
and out the window,
The dock stood still.