Claudine Nash and Alex Conrad

We may not be done with winter yet (although I did see some purple crocuses poking up in my neighbors' yards), but the fall/winter poems are drawing to a close.  Enjoy poet-activist-psychologist Claudine Nash's riff on the color orange!  As Claudine notes, this poem "was inspired...by Dean Martin's version of Pablo Beltran Ruiz' Latin song "Sway" (or "Quien sera?" as it was known in the original Spanish version)."

“Clean Up”

I started leaking orange

again. Today, in four

different ways. No need

for alarm or urgent

care;  as unpleasant as

it is, I’m told fatality is a

seldom occurring event.

A drop of marigold escapes

me when I group

a bouquet of seasonal

leaves. Another seeps

from my wrist after an

article on waning

solar storms. Chance

images of you bathed

in black and white are

always good for a minor

saffron-infused spill. But

even I admit

it gets a bit awkward

when an old-fashioned

lounge piece like

the type Dean Martin

might have sung

drips from the overhead

and I hemorrhage

a sunset.

Originally published in  The Westchester Review

Claudine Nash’s collections include The Problem with Loving Ghosts  (Finishing Line Press, 2014) and Parts per Trillion (Aldrich Press, forthcoming).  Her poems have won prizes from the Avalon Literary Review, Eye on Life Magazine  and have appeared in numerous publications including Cloudbank, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal and The Westchester Review. She is the submissions editor at SolarNation, an organization that utilizes art and writing to draw consciousness to climate change. She also has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and is a practicing psychologist.

Websites: www.claudinenashpoetry.com
          www.solarnation.com

Next I'd like to post a new poem by Alex Conrad.  You may remember his poems from last summer: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/08/poems-by-alex-conrad.html  It is wonderful to see how his poetry is evolving.

"Dans le ciel Je rêve" - Alex Conrad 

Tower of Babble

By Alex Conrad

In the sky

There is a house

Within which weathers while the wind blows

A young child holding a serpent.

The serpent whispers holistically to the child

About the wonders of the world.

That city on a hill

Is hidden poorly.

The earth shall be ridded

Of the wretched souls

Who believe they are better than thee

But are clearly not.

When will the people realize

That they are not here

For the rest of their lives

But are obviously headed somewhere else.

A beautiful city,

Not of bricks and stones,

But of men standing around

Looking at the sky.

Let's finish up with a little music.  Of course, I have to include "Sway," the Dean Martin song that Claudine mentions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrULwmbRYTY

I'm going to include a little Frank Sinatra, too.  "The Way You Look Tonight":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ZGKALMMuc

Erykah Badu sings "Orange Moon" here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bvdnS_eBCg

Charles Mingus and his Quintet play "Orange Was The Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNlQ0lrIEMs