The Straitjackets: Poetry of Rodney Nelson<meta name="description" content="Straitjackets Magazine presents the poetry of Rodney Nelson."> <meta name="" content="<meta name="description" content="Straitjackets Magazine presents the poetry of Rodney Nelson."> "> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">  </script> <style type="text/css">  </style> <meta name="keywords" content="Straitjackets Literary Magazine, e-magazine, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, short story, stories, essays, book, movie, film, reviews, humorous, personal, experiences, political, commentary, Rodney Nelson"> </head> <body onLoad="MM_preloadImages('../images4/home.2.png','../images4/table.contents2.png','../images4/previous.page2.png','../images4/next.page2.png')"> <div id="Layer1" style="position:absolute; left:190px; top:29px; width:291px; height:34px; z-index:1"><img src="../images4/inside.title.png" alt="The Straitjackets" width="280" height="35"></div> <div id="Layer2" style="position:absolute; left:240px; top:74px; width:155px; height:33px; z-index:2"><img src="../images4/fall.2008.png" width="150" height="30"></div> <div id="Layer3" style="position:absolute; left:272px; top:117px; width:107px; height:22px; z-index:3; font-weight: bold; color: #FFFFFF; background-image: url(page%2016); layer-background-image: url(page%2016); border: 1px none #000000;">page 5 </div> <div align="justify"> <table width="608" border="0"> <tr> <td width="598" colspan="2" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"><div align="left"><img src="../images4/logo.top.png" width="598" height="124" border="3"></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <table width="608" border="0"> <tr> <td width="594"><p align="center" class="style2">Poetry:<br> <img src="../images4/nelson1.png" width="174" height="39"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#996600"><p align="center" class="style22 style23"><br> MO<span class="style30">RE EVERY DAWN</span></p> <p align="center" class="style30">to the nonhuman<br> </p> <blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <p class="style30">A quick wheeling up of many a pigeon<br> on sky begun to clear while to the east<br> riparian woods have the gray of a with-<br> drawing cloud over them but not the wet<br> the pigeons have taken to a rooftop<br> battlement and now are gone the sunlight<br> catching the trees too much is alive at dawn<br> I want to stay here with the nonhuman<br> but I have to hurry to a human fight<br> no matter who may win it you will lose<br> you are everything that I am not and <br> am and am off on my way to harry<br> I have little right to wait and awe at you<br> the very blood in my eye would make me<br> look at you with impatience even contempt<br> almost daring you to look back it has<br> become my duty to hate you oh I am <br> not like others I might claim but the mass<br> of me is part of the sum that will weigh on<br> you more every dawn next to which a<br> word a love are only a pigeon feather<br> <br> </p> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </td> </tr> <tr bordercolor="#FFFFCC" bgcolor="#FFFFCC"> <td bordercolor="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#FFFF66"><blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <p align="center" class="style23"><br> ES AMOR<br> </p> <p class="style24">You have moved through the women’s<br> inner library on a waft<br> the lighting low the carpet<br> a sponge to any sound of you<br> in hallways that know no man<br> air only a faint bonhomous<br> tittering now and then you<br> have left a quick smile not a word<br> with me in hurry to the<br> flare of the public room in which<br> you work I have lived on that<br> but<br> there is no list in me to-<br> day I am empty do not<br> see you and think maybe you have<br> tired of throwaway looks<br> are bent to avoid my old-man<br> unlocked den at the stairs’ foot<br> there is nothing to me so why <br> am I here why code this mag-<br> azine<br> toward two I happen<br> to check the schedule and see<br> you are not in the building to-<br> day have it off<br> es amor<br> how many millionth a time<br> did men so conclude until<br> Borges a librarian wrote<br> it down forever<br> es a-<br> mor<br> and how can I doubt it now </p> <p align="center" class="style23"> </p> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote></td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#996600"><p align="center" class="style28"><br> <br> TURCOMAN SONG<br> </p> <blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <p class="style22">If there were a when to think of you again it<br> would be now but how is an olden eye<br> to take in this or any spring another jolt<br> of beginning the rivers high and raw<br> in a notion of youth that is only a wring<br> to me who have seen too many a run<br> time what every mounted aspiration comes<br> to but even so I know an earth scent<br> in the wind again and want to dream among the<br> janissaries of you even ride as<br> spahi toward the gate of every when my<br> bold olden eye can imagine you in </p> <p> </p> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><div align="justify" class="style32"> <blockquote> <p>Rodney Nelson started publishing his work a long time ago but did not write a poem between 1982 and 2004, when he made a comeback in the ezines. See his entry in the Poets & Writers directory. Nelson has worked as book and copy editor and lives in the Great Plains.</p> </blockquote> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><div align="center"><a href="cover.fall.2008.htm" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image3','','../images4/home.2.png',1)"><img src="../images4/home.1.png" alt="home" name="Image3" width="100" height="57" border="0"></a> <a href="table.contents.fall2008.htm" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image4','','../images4/table.contents2.png',1)"><img src="../images4/table.contents1.png" alt="Table of Contents" name="Image4" width="100" height="57" border="0"></a> <a href="big.heat.htm" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image5','','../images4/previous.page2.png',1)"><img src="../images4/previous.page1.png" alt="Previous Page" name="Image5" width="100" height="57" border="0"></a> <a href="cajun.realization.htm" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image6','','../images4/next.page2.png',1)"><img src="../images4/next.page1.png" alt="Next Page" name="Image6" width="75" height="57" border="0"></a></div></td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>