4:22 PM Posted by James Owens

Two poems in a special section, "To Make a Living: Poems of Working Life," at Umbrella

Sledge

It paid to know the grain, before a blow
would crack the knee-high chunks of oily coal
to fit a stove-door....


The Morning after the Storm

My father’s middle-aged son gets to work.
He finds a rusty saw in the tool shed
for broken poplar branches....

.

5 comments:

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Both are fine poems, James, with rich imagery. Especially enjoyed the music in "The Morning after the Storm".

Marion McCready said...

I very much like Sledge, a bit of a tongue-twister and some nice language in there.

James Owens said...

Sam and Sorlil, thanks for reading. It's interesting that you prefer different poems. I will immodestly admit that these are two of my favorites out of my own.

C. E. Chaffin said...

I thought there was more than three lines to each poem when I read the ....

These are great vignettes but I'd love to see them fleshed out.

James Owens said...

C.E.: Click on "Umbrella," which should be in red above the excerpts, to get to the full texts of the poems. Sorry about that.