Featured Poet: Pat Kelly
Updated: Dec 19, 2021
Late but certainly not forgotten, our next featured poet in honor of National Poetry Month. Because really it should always be Poetry Month.
escapement
when we meet again
we will meet again
in time
perfectly at odds or
evens; the
convex lens of a
venn diagram.
when we will
we will
always be keeping
our time as before
or after now;
before or
after now;
before or after
now.
in beds,
under the blankets of
inkblot witching hours
& august dawns,
across
afterthought memories
you were
my soul’s
warm counterweight.
then,
now,
now balance rescinds you
from the empty sweep
of my arm
& our bodies
go
palindrome.
vacant
swing sets
tighten their periods
to
the blink of an eye
to
the uncompleted wish
to
this prolapsed romance:
my love
or just love
now wish
now distraction:
we are two declining arcs
never again
to fully umbrella
without both
legs kicking.
yesterday
on
the
back stairs, i cut myself
smashing
the
hourglass
containing our last breath.
it was an impulse action,
a turn of motion laughably
irrelevant
as i sucked my bleeding
thumb,
watching the sun
recede,
still marking
the time of day
deftly
with its eyes closed.
always.
we will always be caught
in amaranthine oscillations;
all footfalls
counted by its escapement.
i love you now
now then
now forever
now never released.
& the pendulum
sweeps;
& the
pendulum
sweeps;
& the
pendulum
sweeps.
Pat Kelly is a poet who evokes a sense of nostalgia through work deeply connected to the past and the passage of time. He is also a collector of time pieces. His poems pay careful attention to both stylistic format and visual impression. You can find Pat grappling with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and bringing other writers on his journey with his Word of the Day challenge on Instagram. Follow him to catch his next reading and upcoming poetry collection.
@patkellypoetry