Archives
Nov 2019-Oct 2021 -- On Break
October 2019 -- Deck of Lies
September 2019 - In the Surgery
August 2019 - The Cousins
July 2019 -- Chilly
June 2019 -- The Queen of Malvern
April-May 2019 -- India/Bhutan
March 2019 -- Swatting Gnats
February 2019 -- To My Valentines, Past and Future
January 2019 -- I'll Never Say Goodbye
December 2018 -- Grandpa
November 2018 -- Meditation
October 2018 -- Benediction
September 2018 -- Passages
August 2018 -- Feeding the Beast
July 2018 - One Can Have Knowledge...
June 2018 -- The Unsinkable Molly Drown
May 2018 -- Advice to my Grandson
April 2018 -- Awaiting Idunn
March 2018 -- Flight
February 2018 -- Lakesong
January 2018 -- Schrödinger's Cat
December 2017 -- Daybreak
October 2017 -- Night Watch
September 2017 -- The Princess
August 2017 - Pelham
July 2017 -- Siena
June 2017 -- Loyal, Straight, and True
May 2017 -- A Thousand Flowers
April 2017 -- Oboe Rap
March 2017 - March Madness
February 2017 -- The Cost of Doing Business
January 2017 -- Reflection at a Winter Window
December 2016 -- The Creation
November 2016 -- Hemolymph Moon
October 2016 -- Vortex
September 2016 -- Do You?
August 2016 -- Sailing
July 2016 -- Mulberries
June 2016 -- Off Tucker Point
May 2016 -- Unforgettable
April 2016 -- At Night She Cries
Each month Ancient Eagle Press offers a poem appropriate to the season or the mood of our editorial staff. Poems may be new or drawn from existing AEP editions.
Ancient Eagle Press
November 2021
We've been away a long time and some explanation is in order. Two years ago life was interrupted by COVID-19. As reported earlier, the entire staff and faculty of Ancient Eagle Press, along with our interns, groupies, and Underwood typewriters decamped to a cave in the High Carpathians until it was safe to venture out maskless. Cave life does not inspire poetry, but it does give you a greater appreciation for the smaller things in life. I'm talking bugs! Cave crickets. Amblypygids. Writhing things that eat bat guano. When we finally returned to the sunshine, we were inspired to share our new-found love of bugs with you.
Hurrying to our pre-COVID headquarters in exurban Virginia, we spent the next year looking under rocks, up-skirting trees, and blacklighting the back yard to discover what was there. What we found and photographed was 975 species of bugs. The result is our newest book, Wazzat Bug? A Guide to Common Arthropods of Culpeper County and Northern Virginia. Bugs being bugs, the vast majority of Northern Virginia bugs are found throughout the Mid-Atlantic states so if you or your loved ones happen to live in our area, this could be an unexpected and welcomed holiday gift. Available on Amazon, e-book or paperback. Just click on the pic to the right.
Enough of the commercial. You came here for the Poem of the Month. Since November starts with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), it's only right to offer a contemplation on mortality and reality, remembrance and impermanence. This one is for you, Bill. Gone but never forgotten.
Poem of the Month
November Poem of the Month
The Conceit of Immortality
For BVD
Again I sit and read your book.
Your words fall softly on my ears
Beneath your oil, a twisted green
Enigma hanging these three years.
You left too young yet still are seen
Within your work In oil and ink
You ask the question, never posed:
"Friend, do we really live and think,
Or when my eyes have finally closed,
My lips no longer sing my song,
When all my books have turned to dust,
And all my friends have moved along,
When all I built has gone to rust
And moss consumed the garden wall,
When all I had has blown away,
Will I have ever lived at all?"
LA /2021
Where Old Fliers Come to Roost