Poetry Day – One Day Late
Homested Poems
A. ARVIDS GALES
FEB 27, 2025

poem one
he carved a space out of the prairies
shaped it with his will and tortured back
into something resembling the prairie grasses —
whispering sounds driven by unfriendly winds
his legacy a broken rocking chair inside a rotting shed
he once called his home
© alfred gales 2025

 
his home
he stood with the dumb
wild eyed, frightened look
of an animal facing its death
at the slaughterhouse
the open front door threw a long shadow
inside the house an emptiness, she left
for the graveyard before him
dressed in her best black dress
grey hair tucked into a black bonnet
he cried
and cried
and cried for him, for her
for his heart, a single slender stalk of grain
trapped beneath a stone
© alfred Gales 2025


 
prairie dreamtime
a touch, a brush past cheek
to wrist, a feather’s caress
an insect wings’ soft ripple
standing on a rooftop’s edge, almost falling
wonders how he arrived, looks skyward
her solemn face
a gliding eagle
a screaming moth
silent as the silk smooth rains
hot against his waking cheeks
his burning eyes find ceiling
his mouth wide open grasping air
his heaving chest
gripped beneath granite stone
© alfred gales 2025


 
spring broke early this year
spring broke early this year
calves growin’, colt born, quarter plowed
looks fine to seed
sonofabitch
we got nothin’ to complain about
© alfred gales 2025


 
(Thanks again to ChatGPT, with a little help from a friend of Mac products & iMac desktop & ultimately that who creates but remains forever unknowable – unless – you start creating poems of your own. To paraphrase Ezra Pound, Poets are the antenna of a race.
Have no Care, send poems to Bear, my Latvian, Animal Spirit Guide, same as First Nations,
to galesalfred157@gmail.com
Self espouses decent pedigree: University of Alberta Creative Writing classes with names such as Atwood, W.O. Mitchell, Dorthy Livesay, Rudy Wiebe. et al. Add 20 years of teaching and finally being smart enough to leave while still your enough to fail miserably/laughingly; yet succeed royally/joyfully at Meta-Stuff & finding enough time to take 1 or 2 or 3 poems of yours and do a brief constructive analysis.
To quote Gollum, “Truuust me! Send poems to galesalfred157@gmail.com.
If you want a personal evaluation on Zoom contact me at same email and we’ll set something up but it will cost you.
Go to website https://www.consequences.life/ to see what we're all about.
Alternate link to send your poetry for analysis: https://www.consequences.life/page-2/
To Leave a Comment, go here. To Become a Member with Benefits, go Here.

Tags: Poetry, Writing, Submit, Meta, Ezra Pound