The Poet's Garage

By Terry Tierney

The Poet's Garage by Terry Tierney is a provocative poetry collection enriched by deep images that refuse to remain static. Poems begin with epiphany-esque imagery only to morph into something radically new. Readers may begin a poem at Dairy Queen only to find themselves witnessing the implications of homelessness. Tierney weaves through poems with lucid metaphor, tinted lenses (which are not rose-colored), and painful memories made beautiful through language. The Poet's Garage is an invaluable addition to the canon of California poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unsolicited Press
• Release date: May 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393245445

Book preview

The Poet’s Garage

Terry Tierney

Copyright © 2020 Terry Tierney

All Rights Reserved

Published by Unsolicited Press

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Photo Credit: Ben Krantz

Cover Design:  Kathryn Gerhardt

Editor:  Saidah Wilson

For Michaelyn

Contents

Renovations

Painting the House White

How to Build a House

Blue Jay

Her White Tattoo

What the Seagulls Know

House Slide

The Lives of a Cell

Weeping Willows Green First

My Old Furnace

Widow's Peak

The Poet's Garage

My Third Divorce

Shadows and Dreams

The Man Who Never Dreams

Her Collection of Knives

Wine Stains

Her Names

The Empty Bottle

The Poisoned Blood

Light and Shadow

Last Words

Two Women Leaving the Church

Poem with Nude

At the Leonard Cohen Concert

Comfort Food

Water's Edge

Weather Report

Life Line

Snow Squall

Cider Press

Ice Age

The Museum of Personal History

Reading the Signs

The Empress of Iowa Sheds Her Disguise

Turning Back at the Rubicon

The Rattlesnake Exchanges Its Skin

Smelling the Rain

Door of Echoes

The Boxer's Choice

Grandfather Fishing

My Only Home Run

Shaky Charlie Talks About His Youth

What to Do in Case of a Gas Attack

My Father’s Tools

Learning How to Dream

When It Was Dark Enough

Family Dinner

Bluegill

The Crossing

Acknowledgments

About Terry Tierney

About the Press

Renovations

Painting the House White

Paint thick in the August heat

never seems to dry, moist air

heavy with sweat and mosquitoes,

resists my running strokes. Grey oak and cedar,

parched from years of neglect, thirst

for white paint—old browns and bare trim

glow whiter with each dip and slap.

I whiten also. Splashes stick

to my skin like scabs,

hot pores open, unprimed wood.

I remember that summer we painted

the house brown, how my rough

hands seemed to melt her skin,

chocolate tan, and how the flecks

of white light on the river below us

disappeared as we marked them

like details of a dream. Looking

down from my ladder, I watched

her long strides cross State Street bridge.

We never spoke after she left.

She seemed to shrink with time

like green lumber, her limbs a silhouette

of fallen branches on that autumn day

when I thought I saw her kneeling

on the river