The Oaks on Toomer's Corner

A poem I originally wrote about when one of the Oaks on Toomers corner in Auburn was burnt, but I edited and finished it after the recent poisoning.

Tree on the corner

I am an oak
that lives
in green
through all seasons,
where two young
straight flat rocks
meet and combust
in blinking lights
and driving smoke.
My twigs intertwine
but never grasp
with another
whose roots
share my soil
below the rhythms
of travelers,
revelers
and the lost.
I have never been
to a Fall competition
and don’t know
what it is,
but the long white leaves
and the fire
have found me,
in frequent moments
over the years,
stinging leaves and bark.
My species
can last a millennia
and never see another
the same,
or never even grow past
the underbrush,
but in the storms
our branches
fall the same.
A tree in the forest
shelters, holds soil, and soars.
A tree on the corner is more significant
in human eyes and a target,
and a trampled idol.

Robert L. Jackson III

New Poems in Epiphany

The poems Shallow Time and Traction have been published online at Epiphany Magazine (these are actually old poems that are finally out there):

http://epiphmag.com/

Thanks,

RJ

Jordan - a poem about a river

Here is an old poem:

Jordan

Sorted through the locks

social ships float

on the sludge’s displacement

and are moved by the eddies

recycling flagella and movement

to an upstream altitude

of red bolted cranes

and the tobacco leafed trees

swaying underneath a group

of popular photons

and the waterline embeds

only dipping with new loads.

-Robert L. Jackson III

Previously published in The Parnassus Literary Journal, 1998

and in the book Shedding Layers of Ocean.

Poems Published

Good news...five poems (Aethereal Gap, Arbor on Arc, Roman Glass Necklace, Eclipse, and Blinding Blizzard) have been published online at Carcinogenic Poetry:

http://carcinogenicpoetry.blogspot.com/

Another one, 'Psycho-monetary' is going to published in the November issue of the Houston Literary Review:

http://thehoustonliteraryreview.com/

Later y'all,

RLJ

Aethereal Gap

Aethereal Gap

I draw the ghosts from the earth
and the brittle bricks still holding
lodged projectiles from distant cannon.
Their swords become solid only at night,
when the cemetery gates are closed.
Only when the light no longer reflects
have they frozen and revealed geometric perfection.
Only water that has frozen
can bear any shape.
Although I had opened the iron latch
their metaphysical beauty
caused eyes to evolve to a fertile green
and brought my flesh to flatten
against the hard ground
of a gaped wood floor,
assembled by buried bones and dust,
yet aethereally more complete
than the modern tile filled with polymer sealant.
I am swimming in the aether
without armor, and without a shield
but with no gap
between what is untouchable
in the broad daylight.

-Robert L. Jackson III
From http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/image/37346403

a little ole' one

a while ago,
my pages would fill
without time
for creases
or wear to appear,
but my mind
has become less prolific
and now
the creases on the pages
match the wrinkles
in the mirror.

-Robert L. Jackson, 2010

Family Tree

My family visited the Angel Oak near Charleston, SC this past week and this poem was a product.

Family Tree
(at the Angel Oak)

A stable trunk grows like the ground,
expanding its roots
through new soil and territories,
but still unable to provide
a solid foundation for every limb
and every leaf.
So the branches grow;
some high into the air,
toward the perfect light of the sun,
only to crack and fall
and decay
from a winter weight
or a summer swirl of a tornado
or a steady hurricane force.
Other appendages return to the earth
to stabilize
and provide anchor
for the heady ones.

-Robert L. Jackson

http://www.angeloaktree.org/01_DSC3519-raw2.jpg