Poetry Corner: Fireworks

POETRY CORNER

– 07/05/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

On the subject of Fireworks, July 4 is the birthday of one of Southern California’s strongest and most generous poets, Lois P. Jones, who lives in South Pasadena. When I thought of fireworks, she immediately came to mind. I am so happy to present this lyric poem of hers, that she offers to us with such subtlety, drama, and grace. Its perspective glows with the special light that fireworks give to our lives.

~ Kathabela

Fireworks in Altadena (Photo – Lois P. Jones).

Lois P. Jones

Almost Evening
after Willa Cather

and the sky loosens its yellow mask
lets go of the day’s wheat
like cream in the bucket gone cold

at the road’s bend a clapboard inn
invites them to its rough pine table
high above the beer garden in the weald

where the Medway and Eden
converge like stray dogs
and the night moves closer

as they do     Guinness tastes
like the tawny ends of summer
like a life once lived and the boy

in his sunflower crown draws
mille-limbed trees intricate
as hand henna.  Mother rests

an arm on his shoulders
and the owl hoots
into the darkening green

now the slow burst
of fireworks rumble
and everything pales

into their moonlit faces
out of this unending sweetness
out of this last light

Penshurst twilight (Photo – Lois P. Jones).

Lois says: “This poem originated several years ago in a place called Penshurst, a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The parish is located on the northern slopes of the Weald, west of Tonbridge where my friend, Leslie Morley lives. I remember the long road winding through a countryside as green as any I’d ever imagined with gently sloping hills, worn wooden fences to keep in the grazing sheep and horses and a sky that seemed to hold court across it all including the forest complete with hooting owls and distant fireworks. At the time I was reading poetry of Willa Cather, the famous American writer who wrote novels and poetry about frontier life in the Great Plains.

Altadena Fireworks (Photo – Lois P. Jones).

Because I was born on the 4th of July, I’ve always had not just an affinity for fireworks but an ecstatic connection. The deep rumbling sounds and the spectacle of colors exploding remind me of many days celebrated with family, friends and lovers. They reinforce the sense of being present in a shared awe of how extraordinary a pageant of color can be and how glorious to share it with community. All of these images, except for the twilight images of Penshurst, were taken this year at a friend’s gathering in Altadena. It proves that beauty unites us in the moment, no matter our beliefs or sense of country, in our hope for mankind. Willa said “Where there is great love, there are always wishes.”

Lois P. Jones is the host of the long-running Poets Cafe​ ​on KPFK (Pacifica Radio) in Southern California. She is the Poetry Editor of Kyoto Journal​, co-host of the Moonday Poetry Series​ and a recent winner of the 2016 Bristol Poetry Prize​.

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