Zip, or Micrology: Very Short Poems About Very Small Things - Softcover

Kelly Cherry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1947548395 ISBN 13: 9781947548398

Publisher: Regal House Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

Zip, or Micrology takes a close look at things we often overlook because they are commonplace.

About this title

About the Author

KELLY CHERRY is the author of twenty-four books, nine chapbooks, and two translations of classical drama. A tenth chapbook is forthcoming any day now. Former Poet Laureate of Virginia. Member, Poets Corner, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, NYC. NEA, USIA, Rockefeller, Bradley Lifetime Award, Weinstein Award, others. Publication in prize fiction anthologies. Eudora Welty Professor Emerita of English and Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin Madison. Eminent Scholar, UAH, 2001-2005. More info and details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Cherry.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Zip, or Micrology

Very Short Poems about Very Small Things

By Kelly Cherry

Regal House Publishing, LLC

Copyright © 2018 Kelly Cherry
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-947548-39-8

CHAPTER 1

INORGANIC

Power

Children feel powerful when they own a whistle.
Kim Jong-un prefers to launch a missile.


Wayfarer

A button sewn on shirt or dress
is brilliant until it disappears
under unknown duress.


Parsimony

Snips of thread, if we save them —
maybe from a fraying hem
or heel of an unraveling sock —
may make a skirt or useful smock.


The Smile

The smile speaks words:
Kindness
Enjoyment
Fondness
Sweetness
Congeniality
Help
A smile is something like a dictionary
but you don't have to look it up.
Just smile.


Correction

Consider the hat.
It lingers in the hall
on a hat rack.
Occasionally someone will pick up the wrong hat
and stroll out with it on his or her head.
All one must do is turn around and put it back
and "All will be well and all will be well and every kind of thing
shall be well,"
said Julian of Norwich.


Résumé

A favorite cup proclaims a person's point of view.
A motto may be printed on the cup
or cup otherwise tarted up.
I have a Princeton cup,
a Rockefeller cup,
a cup reminding me that peace is inner,
a cup that says I am the mother of a dog,
and I want to get a Philosophy cup.
That's my résumé in toto.


The Right to Choose

I mean to celebrate door knobs.
Because of doorknobs,
we can get where we're going,
a movie, say, or a party,
or a way out.
To grip a door knob is to exercise
your right to enter and leave
and what goes on between here and there
is no one's business but your own.


Keeping One's Cool

I speak of fans.
Not Beatle fans,
nor movie fans.
Simply fans,
as in fans that churn the air around
when we are so hot we cannot sleep.
When the air is so humid we can hardly breathe.
We turn the fan on, and soon, the sweat
on our faces is wicked off.
Our underarms are no longer disreputable.
A fan is a blessing, and not
such a minor one.


Symbols

Necklaces are to women
what ties are to men.
They demonstrate a comfortable seriousness,
a certain amount of success,
a kind of class.
Pearls, for example, exude luxury, tidiness, and calm.
A hysterical woman never wears pearls;
she waits until she's un-hysterical.
But diamonds can be crass: don't wear too many.
And though they may not be as dignified as pearls,
necklaces made of glass can be acceptably quirky
and a little to the left.


On Health

Tums will alleviate your heartburn,
aspirin can do almost everything.
We all need a medicine cabinet.
Let's thank it for being dutiful,
Not to mention downright life-saving.


Secretarial

Paperclips and clasps are cousins
as are dribs and drabs,
although the latter are smaller
than clips and clasps.
A clip is a great help
when you want to put pages together
and a clasp binds many more pages.
But sages tell us a drib is less
than a dribble, and a drab — well, a drab
is nothing at all and cannot be found
even at the mall.


Mica

In New York City, mica made the sidewalks shine.
Shine and glitter, like Broadway shows.
There were stars above
and stars below.
Mica could mesmerize,
or it could mesmerize me.
I didn't have to go to L. A. to see
stars on sidewalks. We had them
right at hand. Or should I say
our feet.


Time

A wristwatch helps us catch the bus
and get to work on time.
Somebody's got to work on time!
Nobody knows enough about it.
Maybe you can begin to understand
the first hour and I'll work on the second.
A third party might give us a helping hand,
and perhaps together we'll discover that
time — yes, time — is the law of the land.


Post-Its

Those little pads of paper in various colors
lighten the heart of any poet about to give a reading.
That barely-there adhesive lets us mark
the places where our poems inhabit the book
we recently published. We love that it doesn't mark up
the book. The glue comes off as easily as it goes on.
We can also write notes to ourselves on our Post-Its,
or number them in the order we'll read the poems.
We stick Post-Its in many places, on computers
as well as margins, on a clock or on one's hand.
When we can't, a Post-It can.


Space

Probably you do not think of the sun and the moon as
small,
but from where we live, they are relatively small.
The sun's as big as a balloon
(which isn't very big).
The moon's as big as a dime
(which, you must admit, is small)
but stars are barely specks.
So remind yourself that distance plays tricks on us.
The closer you get to the sun and the moon
the more room they take up.
Fortunately, space is colossal.


Modesty

The zipper, zipped, saves your modesty,
nothing falling out of your pants.
Yet sometimes the person in the pants
forgets to zip himself up, leaving on
the outside what should be entirely inside.
In an age of jeans and slacks, the zipper
may also pose a problem for the man's wife.
Hand in hand, they walk beneath the tulip trees,
unaware their zippers are lower than their knees.


Tin Cans

They make a mile of noise
rolling down a street
and even more when someone's
Just Married. They help food
last longer than it would
without itself.
A tin can is like an elf:
helpful, but given to
making noise when it oughtn't.


Novels

Fine point or bold,
narrow or thick,
the mightier pen
is a Bic.


Careless

We found a beautiful glass book case
and paid a thousand dollars.
Then we forgot the name of the store.
They still have our money
and we don't have our bookcase.
Are we reckless?
No, just feckless.
How feckless?
Fucking feckless, that's how feckless.


The Remote

If you have a television,
you have a remote.
It's called a remote because you can turn it on
from a distance, usually the distance between
the television and the sofa.
But when I think of remote,
I think of someplace in Italy,
or in Bulgaria.
The South Pole is remote,
the television not so much.


Coaster

A coaster may be sweet or silly.
Either way it keeps the table dry.
Some coasters are rather frilly.
I like a coaster that does not lie.


More Fake News

Let's assume fake news is inorganic,
even though it comes from Donald Trump
who is balefully organic.
Organic as French Fries.
Organic as cheeseburgers.
Organic as fat.
But fake news doesn't cause heartburn
(although it may cause a heart attack)
or indigestion. It may cause the government
to chase rabbits into rabbit holes
and we can only guess at what else they'll find there.


Back Channels

Such channels can go anywhere
and everywhere.
They are mysterious in their activities.
They wouldn't be in "Organic"
were they not devised by
humans who want to spy
or carry out black ops.
Thus they are both inorganic and
organic. Something like the transgendered
except that the transgendered are brave
and not given to colluding with China and Russia.


My Closet

I've purchased hangers with clips attached just so
I can hang up my jeans, which are what I live in
these days, these long unhurried days surrounded
by green trees and birdsong and Beethoven sonatas.
There is now more room in the drawers in the closet.
I am impressed with myself for getting the hangers
because I have very little sense of space.
Clap me on my back, because though I can do
logic, spatial problems are my bête noir.


Outside from Indoors

Let's applaud windows. They let us see what is
outside, the trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass
and, of course, the ground, which in the country
is grass but in the city are numerous streets.
We may open the windows to breathe in the smells
of fresh air or close them to say no to the stink
of exhaust. We look out to dream of distance
and the places we'd like to go to, and sometimes
we drift into imagination, as if
the imaginary may be real.
Meantime, the unicorn watches us from the backyard.

CHAPTER 2

ORGANIC

High-Spirited

Breezes in trees, like teenagers,
may drape an arm around a date,
hoping for a kiss. But the breeze is
fragrant with tropical fruits and airs
and soon the trees are dancing like rock stars,
shaking their arms and bending and twisting
all in good humor. The sudden wind ceases.


Angels Watching

A nap restores one's energy
unless one's partner snores,
in which case one finds oneself awake
and taking Benadryl
to fall asleep again.
Still,
naps can make us feel
we might be sleeping on a cloud
were the angels not singing so goddamn loud.


A Simple Cold

Your throat is scratchy,
your forehead warm.
Your mother views you
with alarm.
Orange juice and Chicken Noodle,
thermometer and teddy bear are her tools.
Her cool hand on your forehead
makes you feel better right away.
Besides, a sick day
means a day without school.
You are no fool.


New

Newborn babies, even the biggest,
are rather small.
You could probably pack
twenty of them in your closet
with no strain at all.
Their toes are barely there,
while eyebrows are not at all.
But their gurgles establish a sense of self,
reminding us to take them off the shelf.


Surprise

An ordinary day
may be extraordinary
if you want it to be.
Sit under a tree
to hear the squirrels scrabbling up.
Watch the male cardinal
red as daybreak.
We think we are alone and special
but we are surrounded by crowds
of creatures each of which
is a single stitch
in the longest prayer carpet ever woven.


Fiscal

Do they still make books with thick pages
of paper pockets for children to save money in?
Nickels and dimes and lots of pennies
taught us to be thrifty and wise
and how to add and subtract.
Then came the day when we took the coins out
to buy ice cream or a toy:
Pure joy.


Maturity

Buttercups grew almost everywhere.
Children held them under friends' chins
to see the glow they made.
It was the opposite of shade.
We also made beautiful bracelets
from stems of milkweed.
Beautiful?
Well, we thought it so.


Goldfish

Shy and small, the gold coat of the goldfish shines
like a gold necklace.
No, it's not wearing a necklace.
It is a necklace.


Glory

Never reckless, the goldfinch flies
judiciously, with moderation,
unless something scares it off,
and then it retreats to safer air (not ground),
all its glory soft as down.


Little Dogs

Little dogs,
not micro,
just little,
bark to defend
like big dogs.
But little dogs
curl up in one's lap
and a big dog
can't do that.
Every dog is a best friend
but a little dog
at day's end
naps in one's lap
like a child
glad to be home
after a day of play.


Praise for Paper

Where would we be without paper?
No libraries. No universities. No books.
Nothing to write on.
Nothing to make a paper airplane with.
Lists would vanish.
Paper money would be no more
and our pockets would weigh us down
with nickels and dimes and silver dollars.
We have to admit:
paper is significant.


Hosting a Dinner

Holding books that you have read
and books you have yet to read,
the bookcase is a loyal friend.
It comforts you and keeps you busy,
so much so you find yourself in a tizzy,
having forgotten to prepare dinner
for believers and for sinners,
and they in turn are mad at you
But here's a thought:
A cookbook will get you out of trouble.


Raisins

Raisins are small delights.
A raisin is not a Lincoln or an Audi.
Do people eat them in Saudi
Arabia? I don't know
But I suspect so.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Zip, or Micrology by Kelly Cherry. Copyright © 2018 Kelly Cherry. Excerpted by permission of Regal House Publishing, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Regal House Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1947548395
• ISBN 13: 9781947548398
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80