{"id":1649,"date":"2021-07-17T14:06:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T18:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=1649"},"modified":"2021-12-01T16:15:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T20:15:34","slug":"words","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/poetry-archive\/words\/","title":{"rendered":"Words"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Words<\/strong><\/div>\n
Daniel Pettee<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Watered-down spirits in half-filled glasses;<\/div>\n
bleached garments sifted by the sun<\/div>\n
to virtual visual nothingness; rust-rimmed implements<\/div>\n
pendant from workshop hooks; timeless incense<\/div>\n
and unstoppered perfumery; several of ten<\/div>\n
ringed pins still standing, fast-frozen frames, near misses.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Ant-crawling, mice-typed images expressed<\/div>\n
on foolscap thin as a lizard\u2019s gelid skin,<\/div>\n
as cool as stainless silver sheen; the touch of<\/div>\n
a beached, bleached fish. Well…there isn\u2019t much of<\/div>\n
sure significance, of emotion\u2019s essence, when<\/div>\n
the last long letter of love\u2019s addressed.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Diced and measured crossword puzzles of dreaming,<\/div>\n
scheming souls at ease, blanked cubes like<\/div>\n
geometric cubbyholes for visions closed in glassine tissue<\/div>\n
so tough fresh razor blades can\u2019t cut it. A trial: at issue?<\/div>\n
Significance of pasts and futures, memory\u2019s slight trick<\/div>\n
of gilding lilies via passages of double timing.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Blinking and blinkered images on cuneiformal CRTs<\/div>\n
in shaded living rooms only remotely occupied;<\/div>\n
a spectral glow commemorates the apathy of<\/div>\n
ignorance, the very dearth or death of love<\/div>\n
aligned against the shiny, superficial blade<\/div>\n
of double visions…or extemporaneous disease.<\/div>\n


\n<\/p>\n

\n
Absence of excess in a rote caress,<\/div>\n
midstreamed streamlined virtues in a catalog<\/div>\n
chock-full of artless reference. You know the look \u2013<\/div>\n
the one that reads you like an all too familiar book,<\/div>\n
the one that views you as a faithful dog,<\/div>\n
as a breathless letter sent to a dead address.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Grasses growing in exsiccated, riven rows,<\/div>\n
excessive seed scattered on land as aridly firm<\/div>\n
throughout as thin-spun plates of gaugeless steel,<\/div>\n
blades blunted on an endless spinning wheel,<\/div>\n
branches bared and broken by a raging storm \u2013<\/div>\n
endless argument lost to easeful compromise.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Half-remembered sentiments in testimonial<\/div>\n
to those recalled as well as those remotely known,<\/div>\n
uttered and published in a blur of anxious type,<\/div>\n
rushing towards a fond embrace \u2013 or premature escape:<\/div>\n
bits of obits slashed across buffed cemetery stone<\/div>\n
in finial phrases turned to sentences lushly ceremonial….<\/div>\n


\n
\nA native New Englander, Daniel Pettee<\/strong> currently operates his own freelance writing business in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His poems have been published in a wide range of publications including Chicago Review, Texas Review, The Old Red Kimono, The Lyric, Evansville Review,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Poem.<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words Daniel Pettee Watered-down spirits in half-filled glasses; bleached garments sifted by the sun to virtual visual nothingness; rust-rimmed implements pendant from workshop hooks; timeless incense and unstoppered perfumery; several Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4562,"featured_media":0,"parent":1261,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1649\/revisions\/1670"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}