Steve Fay’s “turnings: a suite of poems” is something special, a sequence of earthy fragments tumbling down the page like detritus. Laden with mesmerizing imagery of tinder, dirt, sky, and hoof, this poetic work reminds a reader of Gary Snyder or a different Thoreau-esque voice of holy Beat tangibility. Steve explained to The Dewdrop, “This work might be called a poetic sequence; however, that would imply a more linear connection between the parts. What links them are aspects of form and of imagery, and especially the associative leaps taken within and among of the individual poems which collectively make up the entire piece.” He further added, “The title is meant to be broadly resonant, as the pieces and their grouping contain various turns. Also, if imagining wood turned on a lathe, one can see how collections of shavings gather in such a process.”
turnings: a suite of poems
———-~
awake all night
a scour
beneath north
stars
less
than shadow
less than
chatter
the
poor-will cry
———-~
the plum’s waxy
blue
——-black
beneath
momentary
line
——-in the
palm
——-the con-
fident string
gathering
dry
——-stalks
to flame
———-~
where to drain the
pressings they
were not rich enough
here is the glove
where is the hand
that hand drawn
against a face was it
one morning
mourning over a
pallid sky dry air
breathing can
make you weak
thin cider
———-~
amid sodden dreams
hard to listen
music of broken
mirrors
notes pruned around
wires
near to dawn
vague de-
crease of light
murk of coming
dew
abandonment to
bare stones
gregorian crickets
———-~
fossil
sunrise found when
excavating eden
the amor-
anthe glowing
purple
the distant lightning
acute but
silent no footprints
but deer
where they gnawed
treebark their
scat flecked with
appleseed
———-_ _ _
Steve Fay
Steve Fay’s collection, what nature: Poems (Northwestern UP, 1998), was a finalist for the annual poetry book award given by The Society of Midland Authors and was cited by the editors and board of the Orion Society as one of their 10 favorite nature/culture-related books of the 12-month period in which it appeared. His work has recently appeared (or is forthcoming) in 3rd Wednesday, Leon Literary Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, TriQuarterly. and other journals.