Burning the Leaves: Poems

By Donald Junkins

For poets, form is a way to put pressure on the written word and keep the author within a dedicated framework. Form adheres to rules, and yet, the poet is freewithin the bounds of rhythm and rhymeto hone ideas or develop images. In prolific poet Donald Junkinss newest collection, he chooses the classic sonnet form to portray things observed over the years.

Burning the Leaves is a book of poems aimed at meanings generated not only by immediate contexts but also by deeper themes spawned through relevant turns of phrase. In other words, similar sounds mayand, more often, may notdeepen the opportunity for meaning that would be otherwise unavailable to the ear and the eye.

If rhyme and rhythm are just right, the experience of language is deepened. If it is off, the experience of the poem is doubly damaged. In the spirit of sonnets by Frost, Keats, and Spenser, Junkins focuses on his travels through Massachusetts, Maine, China, and beyond as he questions whether risks are worth taking in poetry and in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532041402

Donald Junkins

Donald Junkins has published eleven books of poetry and two novels, plus Busters Book: a study of his familys contributions to American wars. He directed the MFA Program at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for ten years and has won three National Endowment of the Arts awards. He also won the New Letters Prize for Poetry.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Donald Junkins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4139-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4141-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4140-2 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 02/16/2018

(continued from the cover)

Waits upon is my own interpretive phrase for other phrases like struggles for or tries to think of. In this context, the right sound (le son juste plus le mot juste) refers to line ending rhyme words.

This introductory comment, then, is in part a reflection on several recent years of perusing the monthly slush pile of poetry submissions to a national literary quarterly; also in part a reaction, over time, to the published poems in periodicals that enter my home by way of my mailbox; and in part an examination of my own motives in periodically finding myself in mid-first-quatrain en-route to another sonnet. (see p. 153)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1

December Rain After Heavy Snow: Remembering How They Went Through The Ice On Christmas Day, 1938

January At The Window,

February: Our Backyard Rose Of Sharon

White On White: Nearing Solstice

An Eagle Makes A Single Pass Overhead

Old Deerfield: Remembering The Raid Of 1704

Sunday Rain In April: Opening Day

April Forsythia On Main Street

The Hawks Road Brook In The Spring Rain

Parked Between The Valley Fields In The Warm Wind And Rain

September Song

Late September Morning Glories

September Backyard In Deerfield

October In Our Town

Deerfield: On Hearing Alban Gerhardt Play Schumann’s Cello Concerto In A Minor At The Boston Symphony

The Dark-Complexioned Woman In The Yellow Dress

2

Swan’s Island: A Cormorant Swims By, Diving, Late June

Maine High Summer: The Southwest Breeze Blows Diamonds

Eastern Shore

The Ferry Landing In Late July

From The Lighthouse As The Fog Comes In

At The Draining Of The Quarry Pond

Minturn: The View Across To Burntcoat Harbor Light

Looking Across Mackerel Cove Into The July Fog

Swan’s Island: The Third Summer Of The Iraq War

Late Morning At The Water-Lily Pond

Toothacher Cove On The Old Abbott Road

Crows In Fog

The End Of August Near Dead Man’s Beach

Giacometti At The Tide Pool

James Gillespie

The Late Summer Cove

Rose Hips Over The Deck

Autumn Deck View

The Center Of The Island: September Sunday Morning At Goose Pond

3

Diving Pelicans, Tortola

Boston University, 1957: Robert Lowell’s Class

Encounter At Breadloaf

Salmon Fishing The Sacramento In March, 1964: A Non-Political Moment In A Bad Year

West Palm: Sunrise Lines Above The Sea Grape Surf

Moonspin, Singer Island

The Singer Island Shore, Late March

4

Mid-Afternoon By The Deerfield River

Late September In Deerfield,

My Half-Full, Late September Birdbath

Parking At Dusk On Stillwater Road Between The Late Corn Fields

Behind The Old Deerfield Fire House: Cardinals In The Bittersweet

Old Deerfield, 3:05 P.m., December 31

December Thaw By The Stillwater Bridge

Late December Corn Fields Below The Town

December In Deerfield: Behind Brown’s Barn Across From The Post Office

January Thaw, The Corn Field On Stillwater Road

January Bittersweet Behind The Harry Brown Barn

5

After The Flight To Beijing After The Hopper Exhibition

Late May In Beijing: Early Morning Lines Written In A Penthouse Room

The Locust Trees Of Beijing

May: Overcast In Beijing

Beijing Weather Advisory

The Rooftop Court Above The Man Doing Tai Chi In The Park

Beijing In May: To Henry B. In Maine

From The Roof Garden I See Kites Over Beijing

The Morning Haze Clears Over Beijing

Sunrise Dream In Beijing

Beijing Blue Sky

China: Yangsuo Peasant Fields, South Of Guilin

6

Hornpouting By Lantern, 1939

Incident Near The Reservoir, 1939

Names Out Of The Forties

The Football Game: 1943

A Green Stick Fracture In 1944: The Afternoon Of The Saugus Post-Season Night Game At Manning Bowl In Lynn

Evening In The Vegetable Garden, 1944*

I Saw Joe Louis Sitting In A Times Square Deli

Fishing The Rezzie During The War*

Overcast Muggy Morning After The Summer Rain: Great East Lake, 1938

Rowing Back To The Camp At Great East Lake

Snapshot Of A Last Puller: The David Shoe Company, Lynn Massachusetts, Mid-August, 1949

David Shoe In Lynn: The Secretary Re-Compiles My Hours Because Of The Under-Age Overtime Law

Me And Ray: Acton, Maine, June 1950

7

An Old Pilot’s Wedding At Eighty-Three

Stopping At Ezra’s Birthplace On A Late July Afternoon

Robert Of Ashfield

The High Bush California Rose

Lake Michigan: Evanston

The Day Kaimei Toured The Former Nazi Concentration Camp At Terezin

On Henry’s Jail Time: Protesting The Iraq War

Picking Mulberries Outside The House Where Lamartine Stayed In Plovdiv, Bulgaria In 1833

Aftermath Of The Porcupine Encounter

Blue Holes

On Reading The News Of The Survival Of The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

An Afternoon Event In Delray

8

Watching The Bigger Guys, 1936

Rememering Howie After My Sister Betty Joined The W.a.a.c.s In Early WW II

June, 1944: Boy Scouts

In 1949,

Our Swans Island Deck, My 79Th July

Quick Bread For Kaimei, 2015

Hidden Moon At Low Tide In The Sixth Month Turn

Violins

White Perching At Great East Lake: A Summer Evening Before Pearl Harbor

Reading Unto Sleep

With Kaimei In Kauai, December 2012

That Maxfield Parrish Picture

Now The Slate Cove In The High Wind After The Early Morning Blowdown Blocked The Road In Weld

1944: During The August G.e. Vacation, Howie And I

Late May, Beijing: The White And Rust-Red Seashell Chimes In Kaizun’s Roof Top Garden Room