Dali Dreaming
of snow, the white canvas
upon which moving images
are projected: a carved skull
white eels are writhing in,
using eye sockets, the mouth,
all orifices, as exit wounds
for ejecting painted birds of
paradise, lush colors leaking
from their bodies as they fly,
reflecting the sun with prisms
that break light into cylinders
to be used as homes, dwellings,
for extended families admiring
themselves in hand held mirrors
as break-in artists escape from
open windows with all that
may be stolen, followed by
the family dog, crawling babies
too young for gazing at reflections
in tidal pools or into the flood waters
that lie beneath the snow laden
plains, burning bushes lighting
the way along the flooded banks
for all dreamers lost
Alan Catlin has been publishing since the seventies. In addition to more than sixty books and chapbooks of prose and poetry, he has won a number of national contests and awards. He has been a finalist for the Brittingham Book Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press, the Lena Miles Wever Poetry Book Award and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twenty times, in both fiction and poetry.
of snow, the white canvas
upon which moving images
are projected: a carved skull
white eels are writhing in,
using eye sockets, the mouth,
all orifices, as exit wounds
for ejecting painted birds of
paradise, lush colors leaking
from their bodies as they fly,
reflecting the sun with prisms
that break light into cylinders
to be used as homes, dwellings,
for extended families admiring
themselves in hand held mirrors
as break-in artists escape from
open windows with all that
may be stolen, followed by
the family dog, crawling babies
too young for gazing at reflections
in tidal pools or into the flood waters
that lie beneath the snow laden
plains, burning bushes lighting
the way along the flooded banks
for all dreamers lost
Alan Catlin has been publishing since the seventies. In addition to more than sixty books and chapbooks of prose and poetry, he has won a number of national contests and awards. He has been a finalist for the Brittingham Book Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press, the Lena Miles Wever Poetry Book Award and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twenty times, in both fiction and poetry.
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