From Reno and Bucha in Columns and Left to Right
By Melanie Perish
Over the Virginia Range In Reno we listen, see the news where
the sun slips up the wide sky buildings dangle stoves
humbled by last night’s pink moon and Russian soldiers
pleased with a part in it – believe lies scattered like
pine needles and red leaves broken pencil points
crosshatch sky, white porcelain children missing under skies
an edge of apricot light – with unholy missiles flying and
across the valley Reno floats in Bucha
dim stones with flecks of mica – families in basements are not
streaming toward me through clear air they are not dreaming, cannot imagine
a herd of clouds, their manes and horsetails their lives before this –
Poetry as Discovery
By Melanie Perish
Often my poems teach me what I didn’t know I needed to learn. When I started writing poetry decades ago, I’d find myself having simultaneous thoughts. These came out in three or four lines that could be read in columns and then from left to right. Each column had a perspective and the poem intertwining the two offered yet another one. In the last few years, these kinds of poems kept showing up as more than three or four lines. It was only this year that I discovered the name for this form is contrapuntal poetry.
I stumbled into this form, which is what I love best about reading and writing poetry: discovery. It parallels the discovery I’ve always found in the natural world.
I take in news carefully, but I follow the war accounts of Russian aggression in Ukraine. The reports I read are stunning in their brutality. Greed and revenge as the impetus for this invasion isn’t new, nor is the indifference to life. The current Russian leadership revels in the rubble they make of places and lives. When I wrote this poem, I’d realized again how privileged my life is in America, and part of that privilege is living in Nevada. In Bucha, Ukraine, earth and sky right now is destruction and horrific fear that I can’t ignore. In Nevada’s high desert, the expanse of earth and sky is a wonder and a comfort. Reading and writing poetry help me live this moment in time in this world. I’m always eager to know what reading and writing poetry allows you to do.
Melanie Perish’s work appeared in Sequestrum, Sinister Wisdom, West Trestle Review, Persimmon Tree, and The Meadow. Her books include Passions & Gratitudes (Black Rock Press, 2011) and The Fishing Poems (Chapbook, Meridian Press, 2017). Foreign Voices, Native Tongues (Blurb/Single Wing Press, 2021) is her most recent collection. She has been the featured reader in online and in-person poetry readings. She is a member of Poets & Writers, Inc.
Top photo courtesy of Melanie Perish.
Double Down blogger photo by Jeff Ross.