Last week on the Seattle Poetry Chain, Bob Redmond gave us a spirited poem about Ohio and the burning of the Cuyahoga. This week, he gives us a new poet whose writing you may know, but probably not from his poetry. Here's what Bob has to say about him:
Larry Lee Palmer covers horses and horse racing for the P-I and other outlets, and on a hunch I asked him if he writes "regular" poetry as well. He does—in fact he considers himself a poet foremost. With this I agree wholeheartedly: no local columnist is as lyrical, no matter what form they try. And while most self-described poets forget that the word "poetry" is bestowed rather than presumed, Palmer has earned his.
Here is Larry Lee Palmer's poem:
THE BEAST OF FIREBright creatures in the fiery glade
Where under glaze and etch of stars
The rub of hot sweet promise made;
She feels it in her nape and loin as if
The moon might burst to quench
Her wet desire with her thirst—
Then comes he roaring round a bend
Prancing round her like the night—
Her moan has made his armor proud
The wildebeest of desire
Wallows in the liquid fire
And she bends low as if to rub
Her open beauty in the earth,
Her screams for tenderness
Remind the dead to breathe
And make his bellow hoarse with need—
Then like a swift and brutal god of love
He mounts his leapord bride and rides with
Her through kingdoms of the Pleiades:
If beauty be the sex of tenderness
Then love a beast of fire
That haunts us in our emptiness.
Palmer unlocks another whole world of possibilities for the Seattle Poetry Chain, so tune in next week to see who he chooses to succeed him. Thanks to Bob Redmond and many thanks to Larry Lee Palmer for participating in the Seattle Poetry Chain.
