The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Thu 3/30/06)

[RetroLounge]

The Butterfly Effect

If a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing
could cause a hurricane off the coast of Florida,
so could a deck of cards shuffled at a picnic.
So could the clapping hands of a father
watching his son rounding the bases,
the wind sculpting his baggy pants.
So could a woman reading a book of poems,
a tiny current from a turned page
slipping out the open window, nudging
a passing breeze: an insignificant event
that could snowball months later into a monsoon
at a coastal village halfway around the world.
Palm trees bowing on the shore.
Grass huts disintegrating like blown dandelions.

Hard to believe, but when I rewind my life,
starting from a point when my heart
was destroyed by a hurricane of grief,
I see the dominoes rising, how that storm
was just a gale weeks earlier, a gust
days before that. Finally I see where it all began.
I say hello to a woman sitting alone
at the bar, a tattoo butterfly perched
on her ankle, ready to reek havoc.

David Hernandez

********************

http://www.davidahernandez.com/



David Hernandez's poetry collections include Always Danger (Southern Illinois University Press, 2006), winner of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry, and A House Waiting for Music (Tupelo Press, 2003). In fall of 2007, HarperCollins will publish his first novel, Bastards of Young. His poems have appeared in The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, FIELD, TriQuarterly, AGNI, The Southern Review, and The Iowa Review. His drawings have also appeared in literary magazines, including a feature in Indiana Review. David lives in Long Beach, California and is married to writer Lisa Glatt.

********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[Callalily]

1. RL . . . what a lovely poem

Brings to the forefront how what we may think is insignificant can have tremendous repercussions.

Oh . . . and I love the line starting from a point when my heart
was destroyed by a hurricane of grief,

hurricane of grief . . . I've been there!

[bigwillq]

2. That's a good one, Retro.

I lik how you included the author's bio. Thanks. :) :hi:

[RetroLounge]

4. I like including the Bio of contemporary poets

especially ones I just discover, like this guy.

:hi:

RL

[miss_american_pie]

3. Oh that's good

the butterfly imagery beginning and end. :thumbsup:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear RetroLounge!

This is lovely.....and I love how it comes full circle, from the butterfly at the start......

To the one at the end....

This poem makes me consider all our connections....everywhere, and where they lead us......

Thank you.....

:loveya: :hug:

[swimboy]

6. Evocative and well-constructed

Another good one to stretch my mind.

Here's one from well before modern times, but timeless.



The silver swan, who living had no note
When death approached unlocked her silent throat;
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more:
Farewell, all joys; O death, come close mine eyes;
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

--Orlando Gibbons