More from the Fall Contest

Photograph by Lainey Dyer

For the next few weeks (until mid-February), I will be posting poems from the fall contest.  Perhaps that way I will keep fall alive!

Today I will be posting poems by Allyson Lima and Frank Esposito.  Frank is a Montreal poet and co-edits PoetryPasta with Valeri Beers.  Both poems (Allyson's and Frank's) are part of the Gene Clark contest.

Allyson's poem, inspired by fall in Corvallis, OR, is below.

Turn

The fact of rotting leaves
and hardened blackberries.

Open and without sides I empty
into spaces folding back and back
all touching breaking apart
clusters of berries on branches
infinite seeds making and remaking
mysterious math of numbered days

--- Allyson Lima

Below this image of the Oregon Coast Range is Frank Esposito's musical poem.

Bust it up

  If land got locked between us
  so that we couldn't flow together as rivers do
  would you try to ride it out with me
  and make for the sea

  and if a wall was built between us
  so that we couldn't join together as we used to
  would you come to bust it up with me
  so we could be set free

  if I lost my way to you again and again
  and was kept by land and walls
  from somehow reaching you
  would you call like a wind to find me
         

  and risk everything to bring me back
  or would you become 

  one of all those things too 

  taking me far from you

  I'm like a river listening to follow a wind
  like a river following

  I don't know which way we're heading

  and going to spin

  you're like a rain

  that moves too fast and can't settle in

  I feel you're spirit rising and spreading          

  rushing and sliding in
         

  about to bust up everything

  bust it up like a hurricane running me to shore

  taking me down for sure 

  because I won't leave you 

  more than anything

  I wanted you with me

  to bust it up bust it up

  bust up everything

  If I told you 

  how you fall into my dreams

  soft and gentle like the air

  before a storm

  would you hold my hand when it came

  and if I got swept into a torrent rain

  and couldn't swim the distance between us

  would you call out my name

  and send a wind to find me

  risking everything

  I'm like a river that follows a wind

  like a river following

  I don't know which way we're heading

  and going to spin

  I feel your spirit rising and spreading

  rushing and sliding in

  If I lost you again and again

  and I became as I am without you

  twisted and turned 

  lost and confused

  and I couldn't find my way clear to you

  would you still dream of me

  the way lover's do

  or would you become all those things that holds us back 

  you're like a rain

  that moves too fast and can't settle in

  everything that I can't hold on to 

  like a hurricane running me to shore

  rolling like a wind fire burning

  like a wind I'm following

  holding me there for sure

  because I won't leave you

  more than anything 

  I wanted you with me

  to bust up everything

  bust it up bust it up

  bust up everything

  to bust it up

  bust it up

  and ride out for the sea

  written October 29, 2014

  by Frank Esposito

Now that I'm back from the movies & the grocery store, here is some music for you.

Gene Clark's "For a Spanish Guitar" (from his White Light album, the album before No Other) fits in well here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXkr94anfPE

I'm adding his "For No One" as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0oOna4l_ug

Here is a version of his "Your Fire Burning":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNX5lGsmAnI

I'll conclude with his "Lonely Saturday":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7avzkthcx5k  It is from Two Sides to Every Story, his 1977 album.

No, I want to end with a faster song, "Kansas City Southern," which was not written by Clark but...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfGRou7t9Ik