The Country Club

To think about a country club
Begun for whisky in a tub,
Distilled from fields of golden corn
In a town where I was born,

For folks to gather, have a blast
In golden days, in time long past.

 

Rushing

There is no right way to work what is wrong,
Rushing the shui and missing the feng.

 

John’s Thoughts on Jesus, Night Before His Death

I didn’t have the words,
I guess I should have said,
So quiet I deferred,
his chest beneath my head.

 

Alexander King Ream, formerly known under the penname Neal Dachstadter, is a poet living in Tennessee. His work has been printed in Decanto Poetry Magazine (UK), Western Viewpoints and Poetic Images: the Great American West (Woodinville, Washington), Society of Classical Poets Journal 2015 (Mt Hope, New York), Rocky Point Times (Puerto Peñasco, Mexico) and The Lyric (Jericho, Vermont). A member of the Demosthenian Literary Society at the University of Georgia, he deployed to Hawija, then wrote on Lookout Mountain, continuing with Delta Kappa Epsilon International. Berkeley, Ann Arbor, and Athens encouraged him as a writer. In 2015 he wrote in Arizona at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument five miles north of Mexico.

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9 Responses

  1. Joe Tessitore

    Two points of grammar you might want to consider:
    In “The Country Club” “time” should be “times”
    and in “John’s Thoughts…”
    “So quiet” should be “Quietly”.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Yeah, Joe,

      And I noticed a few other grammatical blunders. But even if all these were corrected, the result would still be a slight effort. “Rushing” if it can succeed at all, needs better punctuation. As it stands, it is pretty much meaningless. “John’s Thoughts” suffers similar lapses in punctuation. Please, Alexander, say what you mean in a fashion that can be readily understood by the average Anglophone. Poetry is meant to be read, not deciphered.

      Reply
  2. Evan Mantyk

    Thank you for sharing these, Alexander King Ream (such a grand name!).
    I apologize for missing the punctuation problem in “Rushing” which I enjoyed for its pithy punch, though some understanding of Eastern philosophy is perhaps needed. It is now corrected.
    Mr. Ream’s poems are epigrammatic and can be somewhat enigmatic if the subject, such as a picture, doesn’t accompany one. I suppose the mental image summoned by the title will have to do.

    Reply
  3. Al

    no thank you to the Average Anglophone, and Time vs Times = United States Is vs United States Are / basic liberality.

    My demographic is narrow, though others are welcome: Berkeley and Michigan DKE, UGA Demosthenian Literary Society, center-right Presbyterian to center-left Episco-Jewish…like my parents and their friends circa 1973.

    If Christianity were a country, I would live near a corner border with Jewish, Buddhist and Taoist.

    But thanks for reading.

    Reply
    • Joe Tessitore

      If your demographic is narrow, then why are you submitting to an international page?

      Reply
  7. Al

    “Whatever,” and “Yeah, Joe,” – I would not speak to a beggar this way. However, I can speak prosaically.

    An MMA fighter from Michigan, a javelin thrower from Michigan track and field, the fellow at Berkeley ’08 with the best looking girlfriend in the chapter, Scots and Dutch Veterans – and farmers – not many, I don’t want many. It’s likely that includes you two.

    Guys who usually don’t like poems, these fellows are my people. We’re satisfied with each other.

    Quote: “We felt sorry for those who didn’t appreciate Sewanee.”

    Reply

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