For Elizabeth
La Cienega slept on a muted afternoon
At old Las Golodrinas, when I spied a nest
Of swallows beneath the age-worn latias, hewn
By a hand that is gone with the days that were blessed;
And I promised to knit for you a pair of gloves
From the cotton that falls from the cottonwood trees
Like the snows of antaño, and send them with doves
Through your heart’s open window on late summer’s breeze;
And to make for you the finest purse from the skin
Of the coy trout that feed on the soft floating seeds
That fall on the river, to put my sonnets in
With a Rosary of the bluest turquoise beads;
And to go up the ancient ladder very high,
Atop el torreon, to catch a roving cloud
And gently wrap it in an azure sheet of sky
To place beneath your feet as proof of love avowed;
And from the golden light of the adobe’s straw
To fashion for your head a magnificent crown
Surmounted with crystals I saved from winter’s thaw,
And sew from veils of desert rain your satin gown.
But when the swallows of La Cienega return,
And the acequias are full with summer’s stream,
And the still marshes grow dense with cattail and fern,
You shall wake me, from this and every idle dream.
© Joseph Charles MacKenzie
latias = Lateral wooden slats that form part or the ceiling of a traditional New Mexican building.
antaño = Yesteryear.
torreon = A look-out tower made of adobe used to guard a settlement or watch for the arrival of wagon trains coming up the Camino Real.
acequias = Man-made irrigation ditches for farming.
adobe = A building material made up of earth and straw and other organic matter. In New Mexico, the straw under certain lighting conditions can give an adobe wall a golden radiance when seen from a distance.
Joseph Charles MacKenzie is a traditional lyric poet, the only American to have won Scottish International Poetry Competition. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times, The Scotsman (Edinburgh), The Independent (London), US News and World Report, Google News, and many other outlets. He writes primarily for the Society of Classical Poets (New York) and Trinacria (New York). MacKenzie has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Michael Burch,
If you are the real Jack Beaulieu, then you have soiled yourself, and someone should come and change your diaper, and find a new editor for the Vipertexts.
But what I really want to know, Joseph MacK, is how you sussed him out.
I’m sorry, E.V.; though I respect you, I can’t always take your advice. Though, on occasion, I might regret things I write, what kind of coward would would write things under a pseudonym? I can answer that: someone who is deathly afraid of Joseph Salemi.
Dear Mr. Anderson,
One Scot to another. You are right. Jack Beaulieu is a pseudonym used by, just call it for now an operative from an old, failed poetry venue that has it out for Evan Mantyk himself and anyone else in Dr. Salemi’s exclusive circle. You can contact me through my website.
As I explained to E. V. Wyler, this was not a case of a simple troll, it was a campaign on the part of a failed old poetry scam that has shifted from literature to defamation thinking to save themselves. They are trying to infiltrate the readership of the SCP so they can eventually spring surprise attacks later on when they deem necessary.
This is why I replied to the miscreant’s comment on your current thread. But no worries, the editorship is aware of him (you woldn’t believe how much information they’ve gathered!). So, hang on a bit and you’ll see action.
Loving your poems I’m finding on the web, by the way…
All good wishes!
Thank you very much. The assurances of a stout soul such as you mean a lot to me. Although I am not as deep a believer as you are, in our Father’s house are many mansions, and I should be satisfied with the least log cabin there.
Please note that we will now be deleting comments from anyone posting under a pseudonym or anyone posting under a different name and posing as a second commenter. A commenter named “Jack Beaulieu” has previously commented under the name “Mort Miller” and is suspected of being someone else entirely. If Mort Miller (or Jack Beaulieu or whoever) wants to sort out the identity issue and be allowed to comment simply contact [email protected]. (The only exception to this rule is Bruce Dale Wise, who comments under a wide variety of anagrammatic pseudonyms)
And thumbs up for BDW.
A very interesting person indeed.
I apologize, not just to jackasses, but to mules and hinnies also.
I could show you Burro Alley when you come and visit Santa Fe. It is a remnant of the time when Santa Fe survived by importing donkeys to Missouri.
Hyenas? Attend to your own house, you foul beast.
Still a testament to the power and popularity of the Society of Classical Poets that even its alt-left attackers are absolutely pre-occupided with it in whatever way they are. Hyenas increase readship.
We saw this in January 2017 when the Inugural Poem for Donald J. Trump was published. Leftist hyenas went to their separate websites and email lists to defame both the poem and its author. Within two hours of the poem’s appearance in the UK, SCP editorship reported over 17,000 hits and counting. Folks from the uppermost tiers of American society are now faithful readers of the SCP.
The problem with defamation is that people then look into the poetry defamed and see nothing but quality, which makes the defamers look like the liars they are, or at very least bitter losers and jerks.