Monday, July 20, 2015

Poem of Day: “Sometimes in June” by Carl Boon

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Sometimes in June” by Carl Boon.  A native of Ohio, Carl Boon lives in Istanbul, where he directs the English prep school and teaches courses in literature at Yeni Yuzyil University. Recent or forthcoming poems appear in:  Posit, The Adirondack Review, The Tulane Review, Badlands, The Blue Bonnet Review, and other magazines.

Fall in Istambul
Sometimes in June
Carl Boon

Sometimes in June 
a little fall will startle you. 
You'll be walking home from work
behind a girl who's just begun
her bank job, and she twirls 
her hair at the traffic light,
twirls her purse on her thumb.
And in the time it takes
for the boy from Mardin 
selling plums on the corner to call,
leaves will have dotted the street
in yellows and reds. 
Then the smell, like unseen smoke
from a village
that wasn't there yesterday. 
You shiver. You are certain
of the season, but still a lapse,
a square of October 
on the side of the building
instead of a window. A woman
sweeping her balcony of leaves.
A forecast of rain and cool.

Poet’s Notes:  In "Tjanting", Ron Silliman observes that, "Reddest red contain red blue." "Sometimes in June" carries that notion to the realm of time and seasons, in which a trace of a smell in summer seems to contain fall. The poem begins with that idea, and then continues to portray images of fall in Istanbul. 

Editor’s Note:  The poet creates a quiet, magical mood here that draws me into a special moment.

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