POND by John L. Stanizzi

"These little four-lines poems are from a one-year-long project called POND -- The poems are acrostics.  Everyday, at different times during the day, I visit our pond with notebook and camera in hand.  I jot down some notes, take a picture or two, if a good photo op. presents itself.  Then I head home and write a four line acrostic using the letters P, O, N, and D.  I will do this for one year; I've not missed a day yet.  The other caveat, which makes the project so interesting to me, is that I cannot use any of my first words more than once.  I need a different P, O, N, or D word every day; I began the book on November 9, 2018 and will complete it on November 9, 2019."

From POND

**

9.27.19

7.34 p.m.

48 degrees

Pettish sparrows fill the branches, though it’s harder to hide now,

orifices to the inland appear which were concealed by leaves only days ago.

Nacreous birch rises like a spine with nerves and veins the color of the breathing landscape,

descendent of bone, supple enough to swing were it not inundated by fall.

9.21.19

8.01 a.m.

52 degrees

Possessing less and less each day, the banks, like low tide, are exposed,

obstinate dry spell leaving the pond’s bones to dry in the sun.

Neurosis in the landscape, the weight of late summer

discomfits the trees which give in, sag, continue their slow burn.

John L. Stanizzi is author of Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, and Sundowning.   His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, American Life in Poetry, The New York Quarterly, The Cortland Review, Rattle, and many others.  A former New England Poet of the year, John’s work has been translated into Italian and appears widely in Italy.  John teaches literature at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, and lives with his wife, Carol, in Coventry, CT.