Central California Poetry Journal

Volume 2003 Number 1

The Poetry of Central California Page 0314

The Poetry of Brent Francis Maupin

Brent Francis Maupin is sifty-seven years old. Mr. Maupin has been living in the Los Padres off and on since 1976.

now and then

rather than to be a poet
i would like to be a fifty foot oak
hidden deep in the unviolated recesses
of the los padres national forest
with submissively reproductive ants
at my trunk
which also slowly devour me
wet lichen on my bark
a silver brook of pure mountain water
trilling past me
condors and butterflies
flying joyously above
in golden sunshine

my war
my war is against myself
the enemy is always attacking the enemy
in endless search of pomp and pelf
when will the good powers
stop my mad obsession
only until the cosmos
has burnt itself out
and then, what then
i suspect that i am blessed
and condemned
by the fury of stars
and emptiness
void

solitary wanderer
in the shadow of the rock
cool in the cave
looking out upon the desert sand
blazing in the sun
i remember you who are dead
and silent as the emptiness where i am
the blue river eases through infinity
a happy fool of time
my chest is wounded
and pain makes me shake
i lean into the earth
and share your spirit
with the sweetness of the death i give

haiku

an old caterpillar
crawls across a rock
in the night rain

turkey vulture
drifts in the wind
hunting late

the memory of a lost love
a flock of pigeons
rises into a cloudy sky

is the wind blowing a can
down an empty street
in moab utah

for julia in the tree

julia butterfly hill --
maenad
billions of years old earth
dying into night
the way its done
for millions of days and
nights
the cold came up, all the
heat went out of the air
the mist rose,
and i was buried in
darkness

All text and images in The Central California Poetry Journal are copyrighted. Copyright by © by Scott Galloway2002. All rights are reserved. See main Journal page for copyright information.

Authors and poets submitting original materials to this journal retain all rights to their original work, except those rights specifically assigned in writing to Solo Publications including the right to publish the submitted work in The Central California Poetry Journal. The poems on this page are copyrighted by the author. Copyright © Brent Francis Maupin 2003 All Rights Reserved

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