New Poetry by Doug Holder

 

A Balloon with the Artist's Own Breath

(From a New York Times article about a museum exhibit)

On the museum wall
appointed
next to a
well- hung
gray
duct-taped banana 
the artist's
mission statement
his heated breath
confined in plastic--
swirls of sputum
particles of modern
postmodern
conceptual
are in a slow,
threatening cloud.

And it is best
that it is contained
amidst the refined,
patrons'
nuanced breath
It is best
to be deaf.

- © Doug Holder 2020

Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Press. His work has appeared in Blue Pepper, Constellations, The Boston Globe and elsewhere. For over thirty years he ran poetry groups for psychiatric patients at McLean Hospital--outside of Boston. His latest collection of poetry is " The Essential Doug Holder: New and Selected Poems." ( Big Table Books)