#255: Three Poems by Gregory Luce

~This poem was first published in Logical Reader (1997).

“Better git it in your soul”

(for Jim)

Better embrace it like Mingus’

bass, stroke it, caress it, pull it in,

draw it like smoke, drink it

like old bourbon burning

all the way down.

Then give it back.

 *****

~This poem was first published in Dancing Shadow Review (1997).

Some Grackles

One windowpane only

stands between you and

what’s out there,

the lawn slowly filling

with sunlight that stings

your eyes a little

but you keep on

looking anyway waiting

while coffee drips,

one eye propped

open and glassy,

like a stuffed bird’s,

and outside on the lawn

some grackles are milling,

mobbing and strutting,

flaunting their tails like

soiled shiny suspect flags.

~This poem was first published in Shades of Gray (1998).

 *****

Sphere

(for Reuben Jackson)

Misterioso? Yes,

like a gray cat

at night jumping

into and out of

a sliver of light

on the sidewalk.

Misterioso, yes, the way

big raindrops hit

a metal roof, pool

and slide down

in spatters and

rivulets.

The way hot oil

jumps and pops

its rhythms

in the skillet.

Yes, misterioso

like a walk in the night

through New York,

New Orleans,

Paris, or your city or

mine when the sounds

and smells and flavors

flow and dance around

you and the feeling is, yes,

misterioso.

*****

THE STORIES BEHIND THE POEMS

“Better git it in your soul” was inspired by the Mingus composition of that name. I love jazz obsessively, especially that of the era that produced the great bebop and hard bop artists like John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk (both of whom I’ve written about frequently), Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, and Charles Mingus. Besides being a homage to Mingus and the music, it also tries to express something about the nature of poetic inspiration.

“Some Grackles” was a title in search of a poem for a couple of years. Birds are another of my obsessive loves and I am always noticing them. I spotted the grackles that inspired this poem many years ago at the side of I-70 while driving to Ohio with my then-wife. They caught my eye and I idly said, “There’s some grackles.” That phrase stuck in my mind thereafter and I thought what a great title it would make. About two years later, reading a passing reference to a grackle in Richard Wilbur’s poem “Lying,” and Anthony Hecht’s wonderful “Crows in Winter” helped the pieces click into place.

“Sphere,” as the dedication implies, was a response to Reuben Jackson’s poem “thelonious” that refutes the notion that Monk’s music is bizarre or unintelligible. It is by no means a rebuttal, but a playful engagement, a tribute to both Thelonious and Reuben. I especially prize this poem because it began my friendship with Reuben: I found a mailing address (this was well before e-mail) and sent him the poem. He replied with warmth and kind words and eventually we met in person and began an acquaintance that continues today.

*****

ABOUT GREGORY LUCE

Gregory Luce is the author of Signs of Small Grace (Pudding House Publications), Drinking Weather (Finishing Line Press), Memory and Desire (Sweatshoppe Publications), and Tile (Finishing Line). His poems have appeared in numerous print and online journals, and in the anthologies Living in Storms (Eastern Washington University Press), Bigger Than They Appear (Accents Publishing), and Unrequited and Candlesticks and Daggers (ed. Kelly Ann Jacobson). In 2014 he was awarded the Larry Neal Award for adult poetry by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Retired from the National Geographic Society, he lives in Arlington, VA. and works as an instructor for Writopia Lab. He blogs at https://dctexpoet.wordpress.com.