Peter Fernbach participated in the Fall 2011 Advanced Poetry Community Workshop, with Rebecca Wolff, here at the New York State Writers Institute. He says of his experience, "Valuable criticism is hard to come by: even writers, English teachers, and workshoppers get their cliche on. But, I thought we, as a group, were able to remain open enough to varying approaches and styles to keep the criticism both formalistically appropriate and stylistically sensitive." Pete works at SUNY Adirondack and one day may very well may have a PhD from UAlbany. Pete Fernbach reads his work this Friday, January 20 at 8pm as part of the YES! Reading Series at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12210.Here, a poem in iambic pentameter composed for the workshop:
Effluvia
The cage, the stage, the mess; who cares today?
When guns are run behind the house and war –
A willing gate beneath the feet of exiles.
I’ll find a day to massacre them all!
Soft petals from the sink; what thoughts can come
Behind the old counter? Hail stones, red lights –
The moon pours coffee to the hearts of kids
Splayed on the street amid the strain, the mess.
Translation is a frozen guilt, right here,
Over the cake left from the holiday:
“And how is the consistency of lime
For naught did I in hate, but all in honor.
Unlike the broken treasures on the street?”
Moussaka, Lupus, Occidentalis
The race is run, my days are done –Exeunt!
