Hang on to your terza rima! Batten down your poetic hatches! If you haven’t read Hayden Saunier before, you are in for a treat, a few shocks, and perhaps – just perhaps – a seismic shift in your idea of what poetry can be. Horace would not approve. Fortunately, I suspect that Ms. Saunier has enough grit not to care. My fellow writers frequently label me as a poet of the dark side. I retort that I am not Gary Larson’s half-sister. Ms. Saunier, however, could definitely be his relative, without the sense of humor. Consider the third poem, first – “The One and the Other.” What a mix of pixie dust and unyielding rope! The paradoxes reign, and readers must puzzle out the twain. As regular readers of these Monday posts know, I am more than fond of poems about animals, so I’ve included one about a dog and one about a horse. But these poems are so much more than encounters with our fellows. They are the stuff of mystery revealed. POEMS Hayden Saunier 14 Degrees Below Zero in the Grocery Stor
Thoughtfulness: a hook on the door in a public restroom. Forgetfulness: leaving your coat in a public restroom. The old saints sought to encounter God by passing through the dark night of the soul. We prefer a cruise to the land of the midnight sun. The morning bed-making helps our brain set to rights The topsy-turvy dreams we passed through in the night. In meditation we contemplate the minute hand creeping across the face of time before clicking back into our digital lives. In even the best marriage, certain things are beyond correction. A spouse's tolerance must exceed the other's imperfection. Math is a language it’s impossible to lie in. Chairman Joe