from Pastoral Emergency
F
first name pencil firm
fixed behind ear fat
federate Allah friend
firepower I call you form
flotilla to ocean flat
flicking follicles
after your fossil farewell
where the footprints of field mice
fast-forward
to footfalls that fold
to fool the furious
flowering facts as we went
we flung beneath the forest
full of the fashion
failing fire
we hanged from their filthy
fathoms beneath frantic
floodwaters and I forget
for he was full of beans
frightening the foxes
flogging the mastiff to follow
a figure in the flames
fine feather
flimsy in his cap shot first
L
lodger but for sale loose
listing my lamb
lacing under the moon long
lolling by late
latitudinarian large
leap to my loop
law by our habit loss
let go grown furious loud
lime your eyes shut low
liquor the lode
latch delicate the lot
little by little
lush in its light industry
lock the lofty
lightning cruel interpretation’s limp
like a die-cast letting
light press its luck
leap looking
love’s corpse in all likelihood
lisps awake lost
a phantom-limb in actual lust
language my lord
her linear ribs loose
lopped off a dry Ash lunging
labyrinth a hearse is loyal
loamy lurching
in the larder long in the tooth
listen my pitchfork is lacy
loveliest of lands
lest a pigeon laugh away
in a lazy lingo
libel asking leading questions
lip-gloss licking
leopard skin lippy
at her lilac listening post
loved or overlooked
M
lofty mountains mend
make meat
in the meantime our Makam
moves wine on the mat
mules munching on the shore
muzzled and missing
majesty pitched its medley
memory mirroring a sepia
meningitis muffled
mouthing a mess of syllables
in maneuvers mostly
mute his main goodbyes
met halfway of montage cinema
mashing some more
murder for progress Messieurs
mocked or mislaid
in the end man makes metaphor
not mathematical measure
multiple as a slow-moving
mutter off my mind
maestro miffed
makes it to the moon only
murmuring to the mule-skinner
mince us up meanwhile
madam got wind of the maelstrom
machine gun meddled
marked by moving clouds
mussed to mad
merrymaking and mistakes
melted into the Mediterranean
more often in the middle
man grunts meaningfully
my steed my name
mapping what meets the eye
molding a message
most made from scratch
N
new leases on old noises
heavy nooses nightmare
nectar network
near without saying natter
nestled a foot naked
nesting in the mouth narrow
numb down negotiating
numbers with my neighbor
notched it goes nick
nickel without saying needle
niche it goes nebula
never dying without saying natural
naturally when its nice out
nouns but no dice
nautical to a newsreel
these newspapers could not hurt a fly
nine times out of net
nicknaming Nelu
nighttime holds a candle neither
here nor there notifying us
never mind neck
and neck with a Narodnik
now I need room to swing a cat
nimble as a nun
R
ring in their proverbial rage
riverside refrain
rearrange the rainstorm
the rain is slurring down the rail
the riffle-loosened railway
rawboned and in the rearmost
rice assassin through the rainwater
remainder of a ratty
rush-hour return
but rest easy reader
reaching ripe
rotten apples among the reeds
roguish boy rehearses
ringing areolas to rubies
rust in its run
rattling off the names of rose bushes
rangy like a reference
the rock startles the calf with a rasp
red strikes out the roughhew names
of runts with equal rigor
it remains a retinal act
ready to order our rebellion
a radish cutting ragweed
roughly speaking always right
U
underlit by suggestion utterly
unprepared for the unwritten
unexpected up the creek
an untied unicorn
unpictured in his uncial name
underlined with unshaken lettering
underwater caught unawares
umpteenth time unfurls
unleashes in a tornado umm
urban unmentionables
urinate in a used car
unchristian of him to make a u-turn
unquotable tongues undulate
our unblushing urgency
used to remember the undying
in unison in the undertow
under the umbrella
unsightly up one sleeve
ultimately a man did upset the apple cart
until we saw upside down
uttering something upstairs
unbeknownst to us
unraveling an unscalable
umber and stretching its urn
V
dear violinist in the village
make vroom into vision
voice your vengeance
Vatican young and full of virtue
valley going out of view
vibrating a little milky viper
villain high up in your villa
voluptuous as voltage
vying for vanilla ice cream
a venom close to the vernacular
vanishes into your veins
goes vamoose into your verbs
Note: Earlier versions of “L” as “lodger but that hearse has been for sale loose” have appeared in Express Milwaukee and in the UW-Milwaukee Creative Writing Anthology. Ed. Joe Radke. Milwaukee, WI: UW-M Press, 2010.
Gene Tanta was born in Timisoara, Romania and lived there until 1984, when his family immigrated to the United States. Since then, he has lived in DeKalb, Iowa City, New York, Oaxaca City, Iasi, Milwaukee, and Chicago. He is a poet, visual artist, and translator of contemporary Romanian poetry. His two poetry books are Unusual Woods and Pastoral Emergency: both are excerpted from in this issue of Almost Island. Tanta earned his MFA in Poetry from the Iowa's Writers' Workshop in 2000 and his PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2009 with literary specialization in twentieth-century American poetry and the European avant-garde. His journal publications include: EPOCH, Ploughshares, Circumference Magazine, Exquisite Corpse, Watchword, Columbia Poetry Review, and The Laurel Review. Tanta also has had two collaborative poems with Reginald Shepherd anthologized in Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry. Currently, he is working on two anthologies while teaching post-graduate creative writing online for UC Berkeley Extension.