{"id":3779,"date":"2013-04-23T02:26:02","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T02:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/?p=3779"},"modified":"2013-04-23T02:26:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T02:26:02","slug":"3-poems-by-paul-adler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2013\/04\/23\/3-poems-by-paul-adler\/","title":{"rendered":"3 poems by Paul Adler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Betrothal <\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\nThe jeweled lips of Elvis open
\n   into an ambient scream,
\n 
\nthat echoes through
\n   the bowling alley and into
\n 
\nthe all-night liquor store
\n   where you turn from me
\n 
\nas if I were one more pearl
\n   in a long necklace of mistakes.
\n 
\nAmid glass embroidered
\n   corridors people discuss
\n 
\nnews with the patient hum
\n   of hornets, and as you walk
\n 
\nswiftly toward the subway
\n   it feels as if something else
\n 
\nwere approaching, like a song
\n   that plays and is played again
\n 
\nwithin me, we struggle always
\n   amid some bright company.
\n 
\n_______________________________________________
\nTexaco Divine<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\nBefore his master returned, Argos sang
\n   upon the heap\u2014now the radio
\ncroons with innocence and I think
\n   that to be remembered is to be
\nblamed for something, good or not.
\n   A headlight like a narwhal\u2019s tusk
\npierces the empty parking lot and gilds
\n   a bag of peanuts upon the shelf.
\nAlready the contents of the convenience
\n   store seems to be refuse, a chaos that
\nreturns in ebbing waves through
\n   each packaging and assurance of peace.
\nTiny black coffins, candy bars regard
\n   the night and its array of small, sacred
\nlights as a dog steps to the window
\n   and begins scratching at the glass.
\n 
\n_________________________________
\nDelineation <\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\nWhere I fall
\na field is always burning.
\n 
\nIt is a chorus of sparrows
\nmounting toward space.
\n 
\nMy mother feels my pulse
\nas if searching for
\n 
\nsome smaller animal
\nwithin me.
\n 
\nAnd I can tell
\nthat I am awake
\n 
\nbecause this room
\nand its pale life is my
\n 
\nmost recurring dream.
\nBecause, even now,
\n 
\nI am falling
\nand it is my mother\u2019s voice
\n 
\nthat rings as I fall.
\nAbandoning memory,
\n 
\nwhich is a husk of song
\npreserved by fire,
\n 
\nher body becomes
\na tumble of crows.
\n 
\nThe entire room blossoms
\nwith black wings.
\n 
\n_____________________________
\nPaul Adler<\/strong> received his MFA from Columbia University where Matthew Zapruder recently selected his thesis manuscript as the winner of the 2012 David Craig Austin Prize. Paul lives in Boston and works as the Associate Editor of a magazine.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betrothal     The jeweled lips of Elvis open    into an ambient scream,   that echoes through    the bowling alley and into   the all-night liquor store    where you turn from me   as if I were one more pearl    in a long necklace of mistakes.   Amid glass embroidered    […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[8,16,27,31,62,77,111,121,122],"class_list":["post-3779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-things","tag-associate-editor","tag-boston","tag-columbia-university","tag-david-craig-austin-prize","tag-matthew-zapruder","tag-paul-adler","tag-thesis","tag-whatever","tag-winner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}