Poetry | phanaerozoic

August 22, 2016

Annunciation Angel – a poem from my collection of ekphrastic poetry based on abstract, symbolist and surrealist artists’ depictions of angels

Annunciation Angel

After Jay DeFeo’s Oil on canvas, “The Annunciation,”

1957/59, Art Institute of Chicago

Angel announcements are always

astounding. Angels are drama queens,

every one, no sign of subtlety; they light

the night sky, let all the neighbors hear

the news. No virgin ever born could

hope for discretion with angels involved.

Loud, too much makeup, glitzy robes

encrusted with bling, they swoosh in

on wings immaculately white, halos

like circular fluorescent tubes swiped

from a tavern storefront.

What’s the use of a Holy Spirit

silently slipping into your room

in the dead of night after all this?

– Roy Beckemeyer

Please link to De Feo’s painting here:

DeFeo: “The Annunciation” – http://goo.gl/9z6CjK

Or use your smartphone to link through this QR Code:

This poem is from a collection of 28 ekphrastic poems addressing various artists’ depictions of angels. Art ranges from abstract expressionist to symbolist to surrealist work. Tentatively titled Amanuensis Angel, the collection has been making the rounds of various publishers. No acceptance yet, but still trying. All the poems have QR codes so that readers can call up the picture on their smartphone or tablet, thus making reading the poems an interactive experience.

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May 15, 2016

Links to My Poetry Posted On Line

Here are links to various poems of mine that may be found on the internet.

“Pink Angels” (After De Kooning’s 1954 painting of the same name), May 12, 2016, The Ekphrastic Review: writing and art on art and writing (On-line literary journal):

http://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrastic/pink-angels-by-roy-beckemeyer

“Imbrued Angels” (After Simberg’s 1902 painting, “The Wounded Angel”), Feb 20, 2016, The Ekphrastic Review: writing and art on art and writing (On-line literary journal):

http://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrastic/imbrued-angels-by-roy-beckemeyer

“Jacob’s Angels” (After Marc Chagall’s 1977 print, “Jacob’s Dream”), Feb 25, 2016, The Ekphrastic Review: writing and art on art and writing (On-line literary journal):

http://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrastic/jacobs-angels-by-roy-beckemeyer

“Angel, Falling” (After Jagoda Buic’s woven sculpture “Fallen Angel, 1967), The Ekphrastic Review: writing and art on art and writing (On-line literary journal):

http://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrastic/angel-falling-by-roy-beckemeyer

“Skull of Sirius, Crossbones of Cassiopeia”

“The Chase”

“Daylight’s Starring Role”

“Sunset”

“Magisterial Moon”

All five poems published on The Syzygy Poetry Journal, Issue 3, April 4, 2016

https://fulguria.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/roy-beckemeyer/

“Cerebellum’s Fire” – Winner of the 2016 Kansas Voices Poetry Award, May 7, 2016. Posted on my blog, Phanaerozoic:

https://phanaerozoic.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/2016-kansas-voices-contest/

“fifteen panes of glass” – 3rd place winner of Zingara Poet 2016 Haiku Contest, Jan 2016:

https://zingarapoet.net/2016/01/24/haiku-contest-winners/

“Stand By Me” – pif Magazine (On-line Journal) Feb 1, 2016

http://www.pifmagazine.com/2016/02/stand-by-me/

“Fables for Children of the North” (Silver Birch Press – Mythic Poetry Series) Oct 28, 2014

https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/fables-for-children-of-the-north-poem-by-roy-j-beckemeyer-mythic-poetry-series/

“At Night in the Southern Rockies”

“Currents”

“Canada Bound”

All three poems excerpted from my book, Music I Once Could Dance To, at the web page We Wanted To Be Writers, Sep 15, 2014

http://wewantedtobewriters.com/2014/09/excerpt-from-roy-beckemeyers-debut-poetry-collection/#.VBbUz6hRwis.facebook

“Lessons”

“Oh, Come Share”

Both appeared on The Light Ekphrastic web site Aug 20, 2014:

http://thelightekphrastic.com/issues/august-2014-issue-19/beckemeyer-and-wood-aug-2014/

“Front doors” – a cinquain published as part of Kansas Poet Laureate Wyatt Townely’s Homewords Project. Published Apr 2014:

http://kansashumanities.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/HW_BeckemeyerSchultz.pdf

“Cancion De Amor” – Kansas Humanities Pin-up Poetry, April 2014

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/550424385680146433/?from_navigate=true

“Lincoln’s Horse” – Kansas Humanities Pin-up Poetry, April 2014

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/550424385680268124/

“For a Distant Friend” – Kansas Humanities Pin-up Poetry, April 2014

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/550424385680146430/

“Prayer of Letting Go” – Kansas Humanities Pin-up Poetry, April 2014

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/550424385680146415/

“Under the cold moon” – haiku – Kansas Humanities Council Pin-up Poetry, April 2014

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/550424385680119958/

“Hymnal” – Kansas Humanities Council Pin-up Poetry, April 2014

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/550424385680153894/

“Train Sounds” – Straylight Magazine On-line, April 28, 2014

http://straylightmag.com/archives/4944

“Lessons”

“Tree Shadows”

Both at my entry on Map of Kansas Literature

http://www.washburn.edu/reference/cks/mapping/beckemeyer/index.html

“Oceans of Kansas” Feb 24, 2014, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/oceans-of-kansas-by-roy-beckmeyer/

“Initiation Song from the Prairie” Dec 2, 2013, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/initiation-song-from-the-prairie-by-roy-j-beckemeyer/

“Encore” Aug 11, 2014, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/encore-by-roy-beckemeyer/

“After the Storm” Mar 3, 2014, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/after-the-storm-by-roy-beckemeyer/

“KaSantatieh” Feb 11, 2013, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/ka%C2%B7santatieh-by-roy-beckemeyer/

“A Kansas Farmwife’s Snow Song” Nov 19, 2011, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/a-kansas-farmwifes-snow-song/

“We Discuss the Geomorphology of Life” Apr 5, 2011, Kansas Time + Place

https://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/43/

“In Kansas to Stay” Kansas Poems

http://www.kansaspoets.com/ks_poems/Kansas%20Poems%20-%20Page%205.htm#in_kansas

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May 12, 2016

2016 Kansas Voices Contest

Pleased to report that my poems, “Staying Warm,” and “Cerebellum’s Fire,” won first place in the Free Verse and Traditional Poetry categories, respectively, in the 27th Annual Kansas Voices Writing Contest. “Cerebellum’s Fire” also took the Overall Award for Poetry.

– Roy Beckemeyer

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May 10, 2016

Ways of the Wind

In Volume 12 (2014) of Kansas City Voices, my poem, “Ways of the Wind,” inspired by a vivid image described by poet Xanath Caraza in a few lines of her poem, “Matilde en la Hamaca,” appeared on page 74. I am reprinting it here as an example of the use of an epigraph and how that epigraph can illuminate the interplay between the visions of two poets.

Ways of the Wind

“There she was
In her yellow dress
And her hair open to adventure…”
– Xanath Caraza, from the poem
“Matilde en la Hamaca”

The wind had its way with her hair,
made it flow and twist, turned
its movements liquid, its strands
currents of streams braiding
the valley of the Brahmaputra.

The wind had its way with her hair,
brushed it with bergamot
oils from Calabria,
bathed it in the moist breaths
of benedictions, prayers
for intercession mouthed by
processions of faithful
in the plaza Catedral Basílica
de la Virgen de la Asunción.

The wind had its way with her hair,
used it, strand by strand, to catch
all the hues of a Sinai sunset,
as if it were yarn carded
for a coat of many colors.

The wind had its way with her hair,
sent it searching the leniency
of her neck, the Sahara slopes of
her shoulders, had it conform
to its caresses, its advances, its
countless ways with love.

– Roy Beckemeyer

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April 12, 2016

Five of My Poems on Syzygy Poetry Journal’s Vol. 1, Issue 3.

Pleased to have five of my poems on the on-line literary magazine The Syzygy Poetry Journal. Link to them here: https://fulguria.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/roy-beckemeyer/

“Skull of Sirius, Crossbones of Cassiopeia” is a sci-fi sort of a poem. “The Chase” a sort of mythological one, with Orion and the canids chasing the moon across the sky. “Daylight’s Starring Role” is a sort of extended metaphor, with the arrival of dawn the lifting of a stage curtain. “Sunset” imagines the setting sun seen through a fluttering dragonflies wings and stretches that image into some other but related metaphoric ones. “Magisterial Moon” is a sort of adult nursery rhyme personification of the Moon and Sun.

Hope you enjoy.

Roy Beckemeyer, April 12, 2016

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August 27, 2015

4th Printing of “Music I Once Could Dance To”

My poetry book, “Music I Once Could Dance To,” published last year by Coal City Press, is now in its fourth printing. We have added a note about the book having been selected as a 2015 Kansas Notable Book.

I will be reading from the book at the Kansas Book Festival in Topeka on September 12th. My reading takes place at 2:00pm.

Please come and join in the festivities.

Roy Beckemeyer, Aug. 27, 2015

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June 25, 2015

Another Place in this World a Woman Can Walk

Review of the poetry book:

Standing on the Edge of the World by Lindsey Martin- Bowen, 2008, Woodley Memorial Press, Topeka, KS, ISBN 978-0-939391-44-8, 92 pp., $10.00

“The night is Dresden…” reads the opening line of Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s poem, Working Toward the Last Line, as she compares the arcing flashes, sparks, and chaos of downed tree limbs and power lines in a raging Kansas ice storm to a WWII firestorm. She uses such apt but unexpected allusions throughout this book, enriching her poems and expanding our perception of her poetic vision. This is work of sumptuous insight and surprising conjunctions. In one of my favorite poems in this book, Hanging Out in the Student Center, Martin-Bowen juxtaposes Lorca, Caravaggio, Borges, and Ferlinghetti, who comprise a strange enough crowd in themselves, then places them against the streets and landmarks of Kansas City Missouri: Troost Avenue, Swinney Gym, Country Club Plaza. And, by God, they all seem to belong there; you find yourself wanting her to text you so you can follow her down those streets the next time she gets them all together.

Martin-Bowen is as effective in making magic of our prosaic small town back yards (“…an old tire swing moans empty,” from Dancing with Aunt Virginia) as she is in showing us the wonders of the world. Here is how she sees classic Italian statues: “…I think about / how Michelangelo freed their forms, / how their eyes have no pupils. / They stare into the future / without flinching / and show no regret.” (from the poem Statues).

The book is divided into four sections: Seasonscapes, Another Place in this World a Woman Can Walk, Two Brown Bears Dancing, and Beyond the Vanishing Point. There are rich gifts to be found in each section, but I wish to focus next on some of the poems that appear in the last.

I am particularly attracted to the way in which Martin-Bowen can bring Biblical characters to life with layered depth and fierce vitality. Peter’s Wife asks: “How could you abandon me for a man? / … you won’t live in Capernaum again. / You won’t fish again. You won’t drink again. / We’ll no more share our strange sin, / this earthy love.”

And listen as myrrh-bearer Mary Magdalen Rebukes Peter: “… / At our gatherings, / you boast of your loyalty / and call me a whore / who will destroy him. / But he knows your game: / when I wail at his grave, you will / deny you walked with him, / deny you slept with him, / deny you knew his name.”

In The Madonna she captures the essence of all the lovely Marian icons we have ever seen “… / I shiver above flames / in tiny red and blue jars / … / My son stepped through fire. / It darted from the eyes of throngs / that had fanned him with palms / the week before… / …I give off no sweet scent. / It’s the candles’ perfume that fills the nostrils / of seekers who fall prostrate. / Far from my fingers, they bend / too low to touch.”

Pick up a copy of Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s book. Read it. Here are words that will remind you what an exquisite combination we humans are of the spiritual, the passionate, the proud, and the profane. Hers is the work of a perceptive and extraordinary poet.

– Roy Beckemeyer, 24 June, 2015

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March 26, 2015

Prayer Card Poems – To the Virgin Mary as Un-tier of Knots

Dearest Mary,

I have really done it this time,
knotted myself up in rhyme.
I tried to return from the road of sin,
then went and hogtied myself again.

Half-hitched my legs together once more.
Yes, I know, the last time I swore
I would carry my knife, cut the knots through,
but sorrow and strife has me back here with you.

Square knot and granny,
there are so darned many
knots that I thought I knew
how to untie, but here I lie
can’t untie them and so I chew
and twist, and break fingernails.
Everything I try, it seems, fails.

Oh Mary, I dearly need your aid.
So please untie these knots so I
can become one of the saved.

– Roy Beckemeyer

I know that Catholics have a lot of things for which they ask the Mother of God to intercede with her Son for them, but this was a new one for me. So I could knot resist trying my hand at this poem/prayer. Back during my stint in the Boy Scouts I could have used help from the Saint of Tying Knots, but didn’t then and don’t now know who that is. Back to google, I guess.

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Category: Poetry