October 27, 2019

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
**
9.3.19
11.31 a.m.
76 degrees

Pragmatic and industrious, the bunnies have eaten the tops off everything.
Opportunism at its height – I plant green beans, they sprout, they
needle up through the soil, emerge with lustrous, tender green leaves, and overnight
dire spindles cover the garden beds, pathetic shafts of pale green lopped stalks.


***
9.4.19
11.44 a.m.
78 degrees

Permeating the clear air with its luminous yellow, the hawkweed has blossomed again,
obsolescent soon enough, today the yellow hawkweed is so yellow it seems painted on the air,
noonish binge this yellow that looks like a lemon tastes.
debonair with its squared off petals, it leans toward the water which adds degrees to its brilliance.




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.    Besides Poppy Road, his poems have appeared in American Life in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, New York Quarterly, Cortland Review, Rattle, Tar River, and many others.

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