Poems by L. Ward Abel

SCRIBE


 

i forgot to mention Hazel

she married a preacher
that kept her
took her beauty away
spinning
cornered
becoming fluent
in the greek

she translated
new testament sections
from
her husband’s old manuscripts
parchmented
crannyward
a toil
found lost verses
hidden amongst routine

Hazel heard a voice
not from solid state either
just details
in the megacosm
too much
fruit from trees outside

i can’t read her journal
for the voices.

© 2003 L. Ward Abel

CHANGE IN ONE ACT


 

Strange the doorway
it showers metaphor
narrow rickety pieced-together
two-by-four bridge
from old me
to new me
reborn of the lamb
called
direction
no mistaking rarified air
lofty that hope
head down thrust into weather
this morning seems and is different
like
through
filters
of rose gold and green.

© 2003 L. Ward Abel

§ § §

Ward is a life long composer of music (releasing four CD’s with Abel & Rawls and as Max Able) and a founding member of Atlanta spoken-word-music pioneers Scapeweavel.

He lives in rural Georgia within sound of farm animals and the occasional distant jet roar, and was most recently published in White Pelican Review, Poetry Super Highway (as a featured poet of the week), Harvest-Art.Com, Remark, Poetry Motel (Wallpaper Series),Georgia State University Review, and forthcoming in New Rag Rising, among other publications.

You can reach him at: waabel@aol.com