Sandcastle
In the dying vestige of a seaside twilight,
Following what had been the brightest sunset
the season would allow,
A gentle breeze of salted mist blows loose
the grains of sand
To further batter the abused and ruined marker,
Stubbornly carved within a cooling earthly compact,
Which undoubtedly, earlier this day,....
Was that of a Child's Grandest Design!
Tinkling Keys Of Laze
(For Audra McDonald)
Tinkling keys of laze are
served at Max's Opera Cafe.
Cole Porter and I, spilled out
upon the white marble bar top.
I, with my Earl Gray Lemon,
and he; dry, stirred or shaken.
Harmonious chains of pitch,
leaping arpeggios,
Bring the sting of tears, -or at least
the memory of them.
"There's something wild about
you child, that's so contagious.."
How I adore the magic! I sang
it once with a star,
Before her celestial tail caught
fire and the world worshiped
At her temple.
Who could resist. Curiosity got
the better of me and brought
me round again, sneaking into
the Herbst, fifty paces from here,
down on Van Ness Ave.,
Fifty rows from that voice,
and not a dry eye,
-Or an empty chair.
And In this moment, my sweet delirium,
Opium Dreams and Matzo Ball Soup,
We liquify in peace, perched
upon art deco stools,
Not to worry about the bill of
fare bound to come due.
When that inevitable should
present itself, like a cop
rapping at the door of a speakeasy,
Porter will dissipate like curling
smoke, -always his outro,
But the habitual long ago
became an expectation,
And none of us here, any
longer hold it against the man.
He's gotten Under Our Skin.
Ingested in the chatter and
tinkling keys of laze,
Served from the baby grand,
At Max's Opera Cafe.
Mark Novak is a poet of graphic imagination. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and Poetry with SFSU. His poem, The Vagabond Quothe Shakespeare was the 6th place winner of the Writer’s Digest North American Poetry Awards, 2017, he has been featured in the Lothlorien Journal of Poetry, he is the Author of An Insane Chain of Circumstance and is a regularly contributing writer and vocal talent on the poetry site Voetica.com. A favorite past time for him is kayaking the Monterey Bay in the company of otters and porpoises, where imagination can swim.
In the dying vestige of a seaside twilight,
Following what had been the brightest sunset
the season would allow,
A gentle breeze of salted mist blows loose
the grains of sand
To further batter the abused and ruined marker,
Stubbornly carved within a cooling earthly compact,
Which undoubtedly, earlier this day,....
Was that of a Child's Grandest Design!
Tinkling Keys Of Laze
(For Audra McDonald)
Tinkling keys of laze are
served at Max's Opera Cafe.
Cole Porter and I, spilled out
upon the white marble bar top.
I, with my Earl Gray Lemon,
and he; dry, stirred or shaken.
Harmonious chains of pitch,
leaping arpeggios,
Bring the sting of tears, -or at least
the memory of them.
"There's something wild about
you child, that's so contagious.."
How I adore the magic! I sang
it once with a star,
Before her celestial tail caught
fire and the world worshiped
At her temple.
Who could resist. Curiosity got
the better of me and brought
me round again, sneaking into
the Herbst, fifty paces from here,
down on Van Ness Ave.,
Fifty rows from that voice,
and not a dry eye,
-Or an empty chair.
And In this moment, my sweet delirium,
Opium Dreams and Matzo Ball Soup,
We liquify in peace, perched
upon art deco stools,
Not to worry about the bill of
fare bound to come due.
When that inevitable should
present itself, like a cop
rapping at the door of a speakeasy,
Porter will dissipate like curling
smoke, -always his outro,
But the habitual long ago
became an expectation,
And none of us here, any
longer hold it against the man.
He's gotten Under Our Skin.
Ingested in the chatter and
tinkling keys of laze,
Served from the baby grand,
At Max's Opera Cafe.
Mark Novak is a poet of graphic imagination. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and Poetry with SFSU. His poem, The Vagabond Quothe Shakespeare was the 6th place winner of the Writer’s Digest North American Poetry Awards, 2017, he has been featured in the Lothlorien Journal of Poetry, he is the Author of An Insane Chain of Circumstance and is a regularly contributing writer and vocal talent on the poetry site Voetica.com. A favorite past time for him is kayaking the Monterey Bay in the company of otters and porpoises, where imagination can swim.
