Circular Conversation
Jan Marin Tramontano
He was eight when he came to America.
No. He was twelve. I’m sure of it.
He came alone. Can you imagine?
You’re wrong. He came with a cousin.
He was from Galicia in Poland.
No. He told me he was from Vienna.
He was twelve and had no one.
He was eight and had family here.
He was shuttled from place to place.
Maybe. But he had family here, I’m sure of it.
***
Jan Marin Tramontano, a writer living in upstate New York, is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Woman Sitting in a Café and other poems of Paris and Floating Islands, a memoir about her father, I Am a Fortunate Man. and her poems appear in her poetry collective’s anthology, Java Wednesdays. Her poetry, stories, book reviews, and interviews have been published in numerous literary journals, magazines, and newspapers. Her first novel will be coming out later this year.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
On becoming a part of a Family tree
On becoming a part of a Family tree
Charles Carr
An estuary empties
your past
here it sails.
A conquering language:
names with O’s,
arrows thrust in their heart,
voiceless consonants.
I am at a new intersection of myself.
Perpendicular to births and deaths.
A flat land of memories.
Lines grow
deeper in the soil
bonding, illuminating
but I want to stop here,
before time,
completed,
curls up in a parenthesis.
***
Charles Carr is a native Philadelphian, born and raised in Southwest Germantown. Charles attended LaSalle College and Bryn Mawr College, and has a Master's degree in American History. For 35 years Charles has worked in social services, developing programs and advocating for the needs of abused and neglected children. Charles has also completed missions to Haiti and he is active in raising awareness and funds for Haiti. In 2009 Cradle Press of St. Louis published Charles's first book of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania. Charles has been published in various local poetry reviews and is the 2008 First Prize Winner for the Mad Poets Review. Haitian Mud Pies, Charles's next collection of poems will be completed in December 2011. Charles is married and has one son.
Charles Carr
An estuary empties
your past
here it sails.
A conquering language:
names with O’s,
arrows thrust in their heart,
voiceless consonants.
I am at a new intersection of myself.
Perpendicular to births and deaths.
A flat land of memories.
Lines grow
deeper in the soil
bonding, illuminating
but I want to stop here,
before time,
completed,
curls up in a parenthesis.
***
Charles Carr is a native Philadelphian, born and raised in Southwest Germantown. Charles attended LaSalle College and Bryn Mawr College, and has a Master's degree in American History. For 35 years Charles has worked in social services, developing programs and advocating for the needs of abused and neglected children. Charles has also completed missions to Haiti and he is active in raising awareness and funds for Haiti. In 2009 Cradle Press of St. Louis published Charles's first book of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania. Charles has been published in various local poetry reviews and is the 2008 First Prize Winner for the Mad Poets Review. Haitian Mud Pies, Charles's next collection of poems will be completed in December 2011. Charles is married and has one son.
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