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    Sharp Stars
    Sharp Stars
    Sharp Stars
    Ebook114 pages34 minutes

    Sharp Stars

    By Sharon Bryan

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    About this ebook

    Sharon Bryan’s fourth poetry collection blends such disparate subjects as biology, astronomy, sports, philosophy, and music to probe humankind’s desire for spiritual, even physical, transcendence. From Charles Mingus to Charles Barkley, from Buddy Holly to Bishop Berkeley, no reference is squandered in Bryan’s prodigious imagination.

    Sharon Bryan’s awards include the Academy of American Poets Prize, the Discovery Prize from The Nation, and two NEA fellowships. She has published three poetry collections and edited Planet on the Table: Poets on the Reading Life and Where We Stand: Women Poets on Literary Tradition. She is a visiting professor of poetry at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBOA Editions Ltd.
    Release dateJun 20, 2015
    ISBN9781938160967
    Sharp Stars

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      Book preview

      Sharp Stars - Sharon Bryan

      I

      Big Band Theory

      It all began with music,

      with that much desire to be

      in motion, waves of longing

      with Nothing to pass through,

      the pulsing you feel before

      you hear it. The darkness couldn’t

      keep still, it began to sway,

      then there were little flashes

      of light, glints of brass

      over the rumbling percussion,

      the reeds began to weep and sing,

      and suddenly the horns

      tore bigger holes in the darkness—

      we could finally see

      where the music was coming from:

      ordinary men in bow ties and black

      jackets. But by then we had already

      danced most of the night away.

      Saying Things

      Adam was born

      blind: he could hear

      burbles, drips, trickles,

      whirs and chirps, snorts,

      snuffles, thuds and creaks,

      he could hear a voice

      muttering in his head,

      it said Open your mouth,

      let the words fly out, and

      when he said scarlet tanager,

      he saw a bright bird,

      when he said pine tree,

      the bird landed on a branch,

      he said grassy bank, and sat

      down himself, clear stream,

      and drank, he said sun, that was

      almost too much light, moon,

      that was better, he was beginning

      to get the hang of this, stars

      were so far away they made him

      lonely, Cassiopeia, he said,

      and they came a little closer—

      Well, well, well, and three

      deep holes appeared, brimming

      with water, then he couldn’t

      resist, he said hot damn, holy shit,

      what the hell is going on?

      and the voice in his head said

      Wash your mouth out

      with soap—a lathered bar

      slipped from his hand and

      slid across the floor, What

      we need, the voice said,

      is a woman around the house,

      and there she was in the window,

      setting something on the sill—

      Adam, honey, you must be hungry,

      this apple pie will be cool soon…

      and he followed his nose home.

      What Adam came to like best

      was lying with the woman

      in the dark, it took him

      back to his earliest memories,

      before he could hear himself

      think, before all the razzle-dazzle.

      Bass Bass

      Stringed fish thub

      thub thubbing its way

      downstream or wave-

      grained instrument—

      the words make a little

      sizzle in my brain,

      which twin is it, does it

      rhyme with ace or ass,

      my tongue trips over

      itself when I come to

      either one, am I at

      the opera, jazz club,

      bait shop, is something

      keeping time or sifting it

      through gills—you’ve

      got the picture, here’s

      the quiz: striped bass,

      stringed bass, sea bass

      double bass, basswood—

      what a difference a vowel

      makes, this is the danger

      you face, telling the story

      of your life, if you fail

      to enunciate perfectly

      you could have yourself

      all wrong, Bayzil not Basil,

      married to Lisa not Liza,

      writing for Poultry magazine—

      how many close calls our

      lives are made of—did

      the palm reader say

      You will have

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