Glittering Tree
There’s a ray
of light
direct
from the sun
to the young cherry laurel glittering
like glass
in my backyard.
A leaf is a little leaf-shaped mirror flashing light
everywhere, and when the ray hits it
like a little pool, the pool ripples
in small green waves
of waxy energy, which, should a deer eat it, powers the deer
to leap the fence easily
and disappear carefree
into the woods.
A green wave also atomizes oxygen
like a perfume spray
or spray
of bright sea mist
off combers, swirling wisps
of the air
we breathe, vital, elemental air
which mingles sociably
with all the other cold, dry air
in the yard, as well as the dry, house-warmed air
I’m breathing here
at my desk, staring, yes, like a deer
in headlights, out my office window
at the young cherry laurel dazzling
as a white dwarf star
of countless bits
of glass.
- © Ken Anderson 2023
Ken Anderson was a finalist in the 2021 Saints and Sinners poetry contest. New Poetry from the Festival (an anthology of the 2021/2022 winners and finalists) includes four of his poems. His poetry books are The Intense Lover and Permanent Gardens. His novel Sea Change: An Example of the Pleasure Principle was a finalist for the 2012 Ferro-Grumley Award and an Independent Publisher Editor’s Choice. His novel Someone Bought the House on the Island was a finalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. A stage adaptation won the Saints and Sinners Playwriting Contest and premiered May 2, 2008, at the Marigny Theater in New Orleans. An operatic version premiered June 16, 2009, at the First Existentialist Congregation in Atlanta. A screenplay version was Winner of Best First-Time Screenwriter (Feature Script) at Script Awards Los Angeles. The Statue of Pan (screenplay) was an Official Selection at the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival. Mattie Cushman: A Psychodrama won First Place in Drama and Grand Prize in the Louisiana College Writers. It was produced twice, 1986, 1991, and aired often on cable.
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