The God of the Steelhead
for Shawn Pittard
Back into his wet waders
after drying off in truck cab,
he sings “Happy Birthday” out loud
to the god of the steelhead.
One more year given up to river spirits.
Hot damn! This too will soon pass.
Hymn
A new Bible was invented.
Could it redeem the whole damned world?
The spirit freed, progress was made
to liberate men through music.
Who suspects the Ode to Joy a drinking song?
Faith? Yes. But first a tavern.
Unprepared
A man who says he’s unyielding
isn’t well-prepared for death.
The pearly gates fling wide open.
Critique, judgment—then paradise.
Mean old prick. Won’t let you by without a pass.
Did you pay him? See the light.
Pawns
Moth colonies live in sloth fur.
Algae grows there, becomes sloth snack.
Once a week sloths descend to crap.
Moth larvae ride the shit banquet.
What a feast! Their numbers grow, help algae spread.
Moths, sloths, algae: free as pawns.
Wild Child
She fell in love with the Wild Child
when he grew up to be a wolf.
They’d howl at central planning.
He left feces in the pathways.
His handshake had a limp in it.
Too many fights in the den.
Tim Kahl [ http://www.timkahl.com] is the author of Possessing Yourself (CW Books, 2009), The Century of Travel (CW Books, 2012), The String of Islands (Dink, 2015) and Omnishambles (Bald Trickster Press 2018). His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Drunken Boat, Mad Hatters' Review, Indiana Review, Metazen, Ninth Letter, Sein und Werden, Notre Dame Review, The Really System, Konundrum Engine Literary Magazine, The Journal, The Volta, Parthenon West Review, Caliban and many other journals in the U.S. and abroad. He is also editor of Clade Song [ http://www.cladesong.com]. He is the vice president and events coordinator of The Sacramento Poetry Center. He also has a public installation in Sacramento {In Scarcity We Bare The Teeth}. He plays flutes, guitars, ukuleles, charangos and cavaquinhos. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.
***
The Korean Sijo is an antiquated form in Korean poetry that was prominent in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century. It was typically sung (each line containing four metric segments —what are called hemistichs—with a minor pause at the end of the second segment and a major one at the end of the fourth).
The syllable count proceeds as such:
3/4 4 3/4 4
3/4 4 3/4 4
3 5-8 4 3/4
a logical “leap is employed at the beginning of the third line. Or sometimes this gap/caesura takes shape as a developmental shift. Not unlike the Italian volta in the last two lines of a sonnet, it is considered the crux of the poem. Often there are interjections at the beginning of the third line which address a particular person.
These sijo are designed to not be reflective of the traditional content of the fifteenth century form which reflected largely on nature. Rather, they comment on the texture of contemporary life.
***
The Korean Sijo is an antiquated form in Korean poetry that was prominent in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century. It was typically sung (each line containing four metric segments —what are called hemistichs—with a minor pause at the end of the second segment and a major one at the end of the fourth).
The syllable count proceeds as such:
3/4 4 3/4 4
3/4 4 3/4 4
3 5-8 4 3/4
a logical “leap is employed at the beginning of the third line. Or sometimes this gap/caesura takes shape as a developmental shift. Not unlike the Italian volta in the last two lines of a sonnet, it is considered the crux of the poem. Often there are interjections at the beginning of the third line which address a particular person.
These sijo are designed to not be reflective of the traditional content of the fifteenth century form which reflected largely on nature. Rather, they comment on the texture of contemporary life.