A dull sound, varying now and again by Forrest Ham
A dull sound, varying now and again by Forrest Ham
by Bpoetic on Wed 30 Jul 2008, 1:13 am
.
And then we began eating corn starch,
chalk chewed wet into sirup. We pilfered
Argo boxes stored away to stiffen
my white dress shirt, and my cousin
and I played or watched TV, no longer annoyed
by the din of never cooling afternoons.
On the way home from church one fifth Sunday,
shirt outside my pants, my tie clipped on
its wrinkling collar, I found a new small can of snuff,
packed a chunk inside my cheek, and tripped
from the musky sting making my head ache,
giving me shivers knowing my aunt hid cigarettes
in the drawer under her slips,
that drawer the middle one on the left.
.
......
And then we began eating corn starch,
chalk chewed wet into sirup. We pilfered
Argo boxes stored away to stiffen
my white dress shirt, and my cousin
and I played or watched TV, no longer annoyed
by the din of never cooling afternoons.
On the way home from church one fifth Sunday,
shirt outside my pants, my tie clipped on
its wrinkling collar, I found a new small can of snuff,
packed a chunk inside my cheek, and tripped
from the musky sting making my head ache,
giving me shivers knowing my aunt hid cigarettes
in the drawer under her slips,
that drawer the middle one on the left.
.
......
Forrest Hamer (born in 1956) is a poet, psychologist, candidate psychoanalyst, and a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. He was educated at Yale and Berkeley. He is the author of Call & Response (Alice James, 1995), winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award, and Middle Ear (The Roundhouse Press, 2000), a finalist for the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Award.
His work has appeared in many journals including the Beloit Poetry Journal, Callaloo, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, ZYZZYVA, Berkeley Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Drumming Between Us, Equinox, Kenyon Review, Negative Capability. Hamer's work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry, Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life, The Geography of Home: California’s Poetry of Place, and Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry.
His work has appeared in many journals including the Beloit Poetry Journal, Callaloo, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, ZYZZYVA, Berkeley Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Drumming Between Us, Equinox, Kenyon Review, Negative Capability. Hamer's work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry, Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life, The Geography of Home: California’s Poetry of Place, and Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry.
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm - Earle Nightingale
Re: A dull sound, varying now and again by Forrest Ham
by Guest on Wed 30 Jul 2008, 12:10 pm
wow this is like something out of a book I like it very much... It makes me think of living on the bayou and eating jumblaia lol I love it
Re: A dull sound, varying now and again by Forrest Ham
by Robert Anderson on Thu 31 Jul 2008, 4:56 pm
I like this as he has a unique style and way with his words.
Bobby
Bobby
Too many of us are using the internet to get around
, rather than getting around to using the internet.
Robert Anderson
, rather than getting around to using the internet.
Robert Anderson
Re: A dull sound, varying now and again by Forrest Ham
by Bpoetic on Thu 31 Jul 2008, 6:52 pm
I just like the crispness of his language, his matter-of-fact way of bunching words into a readable form. Nice, contemporary poetry . . .
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm - Earle Nightingale
Re: A dull sound, varying now and again by Forrest Ham
by Guest on Mon 18 Aug 2008, 3:55 pm
I loved reading this, very interesting to read and most enjoyable..