The Courage of Flowers: Collected Poems 1963-2015

By Carmine Giordano

The Courage of Flowers is an anthology of poems reflecting the human experience from the perspective of an author who has at various times been a monk, a teacher, and a husband. They range from the sublime, to the ordinary, to the absurd. The author hopes that readers will recognize in them their own humanity and complexity and alternately feel exhilaration, amusement, and compassion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503562509

Carmine Giordano

Carmine Giordano was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has an MA in English Literature from New York University and was a recipient of a Fulbright Award for Study in Italy. He is a retired teacher and assistant principal from the New York City Board of Education. He is also a nationally certified psychoanalyst and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). He is an assistant editor of the online poetry magazine Abalone Moon and the author of six poetry collections: The Courage of Flowers, The Hero’s Journey, Still Sing, The Habit of Spring, Collected Poems 2020, and Saving Daylight. His poetry has appeared in The South Hampton Review, The River Poets Journal, Abalone Moon, Poets of the Palm Beaches Anthology, Perspectives, and Belletrist. Mr. Giordano has spent most of his life teaching writing and literature in New York, Georgia and Florida where he is an adjunct lecturer at Palm Beach State College and lives in happy retirement with his wife Ronnie.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Carmine Giordano.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/27/2015

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CONTENTS

1. RIDing To Byzantium

2. Icarus

3. Aubade

4. Vermont Summer Sketches

5. Still Life

6. Anniversary

7. Goose

8. In Medias Res

9. August Heat

10. Recurrent Dream

11. Yahrzeit

12. Springtime Sketch, Brooklyn

13. The Courage Of Flowers

14. Sinatra

15. On Seeing Judas At

Da Vinci’s Last Supper

16. On Seeing Michelangelo’s Pieta:

17. Annunciation

18. In Sabina

19. Basilico: An Ode

20. Dog Portraits

21. Before The Manger

22. The Prophet

23. For Spanky:

24. Epiphany

25. Primavera

26. North Moore Memorial

27. Brooklyn Pieta

28. Jesus: Burma Shave Ramblings

29. On Her Twenty-Ninth Birthday

30. Nightmare

31. Matina Di Pasqua

32. Passeggiata

33. Passage

34. Kama Sutra

35. Mirror

36. Baptism

37. The Assassination Of

Martin Luther King, Jr.

38. Afternoon At The Stag Film

39. Vermont, Olympic Summer

40. Dog

41. Objects Correlative

42. Palmetto Bug

43. Memorial For Brandy

44. Fame

45. From The Ordinary Of The Mass

46. Anniversary

47. Dies Irae

48. Memento

49. Backyard Easter

50. Old Photograph

51. Season’s Finale

52. Waterbreak

53. Genesis

54. Arguing Into The Mirror

55. In Defense Of Poetry

56. On The Yangtze: A Journal Entry

57. Poems Written On A Wuhan Nightboat:

58. Wild Nights With Emily

59. Afternoons With Julie

60. Kabbed

61. Joy Ride

62. Remembering Li Po

63. On Departing From Li Po

64. Compline

65. They That Mourn

66. The Tears Of Things

67. The Royal Behind

68. Go Forth & Multiply

69. On Bob Coming Through

70. Night Scene

71. Nagging Questions

72. The Whammy

73. Circumference

74. The Dog Children

75. Morning Martini

76. Blind Spot

77. From The Book Of Lamentations

78. Les Demoiselles D’avignon

79. Star Billing

80. Cetacean Dolorosa

81. Stupid Stuff

82. How

83. The Journey To Lourdes

84. Orpheus, Down And Out

85. New Year

86. Event

87. Paradise Lost

88. Last Rites

89. Holy Night

90. In Motion

91. Formula

92. Happiness

93. Conquering Everest

94. Synonyms For Zero

95. Benediction

96. What’s Done

97. Words

98. Maria Pia: Memories Of My Mother

99. Male Enhancement

100. Adam & Eve: The Interview

101. Show Up

102. A Proper Burial

103. November’s Song

104. From The Outside

105. There

106. The Night Before Christmas

107. A Ticket To Ride

108. Paean

109. In Praise Of Jihad

110. Flaying Bartholomew

111. The Chariot Of The Moon

112. Wolfman

113. Armageddon

114. Forgive And Forget

115. Sunday Morning

116. Channel

117. The Heist At The St. Charles Inn

118. Fame

119. All That

120. The Intimacy Of Skin

121. Again

122. Amaryllis

123. Unknown Soldier

124. Damaged Goods

125. Birthday Roses

126. Anthurium

127. That Friday

128. The Pay-Back Wage

129. Against The Wall

130. Carmine Giordano: An Interview

for Ronnie

Vita, Dulcedo et Spes

RIDING TO BYZANTIUM

The Pulitzer poet

eats cucumber sandwiches

at the contest fete

and looks around distractedly.

His eye is on the rump of the young

and the hand of the wizened old.

He is bored by inquiry,

and charms his claque

with studied words

of deft civility.

        (O Sage from the holy fire,

wipe your mouth of cottage cheese

and look at me, perning

in the gyre of my discontent,

mortal, lingering here,

babbling paltry syllables

in the country of the blind.

        Drowsy emperor, look!

Here, too, is a nightingale

crafted of beaten gold.

        Listen!

You will hear him sing.)

He leaves in the lightning

of the camera flash,

adulated, sublime,

and hails a taxi cab

to ride his metered way

through the Byzantine.

ICARUS

Give me the harbor

of all your wing

to shelter

my assent.

I have chosen,

loving you,

a difficult and rare,

touching a molt

of primal song,

keenly,

without fear.

But higher voices,

simple moments

singe

within the