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Moving Words Series IX

THE GREEKS HAD A WORD

the Greeks had a word for an East Asian people
S_res (the Chinese)
on which floor were built Latin for silk (sericum)
and French serge de Nîmes
and thus our denim
but I can’t explain the blue
of blue jeans or the sky
in whose reflection on a piece of glass I see,
quickly gone, a hawk.

David McAleavey

EARLY FLOWERS

Forsythia bear a hanging blight, a wilt
like clowns on gallows. Frost-blasted daffodils
wither, brown sunspots of cancerous bloom.
They were lured by a false warmth in February
to believe in April. Trusting their senses
to spring, they cast away their infant wool
and opened their petals to a lion’s embrace.

Miles David Moore

HAIKU

My body unwrapped
The icy bite of morning
You stole the blankets

Malcolm Shute

About the Series IX Poets

David McAleavey has an MFA and a PhD from Cornell University, and has taught since 1974 in the English Department of George Washington University, where he is currently the Director of Creative Writing. He has lived in Arlington since 1976. He is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Holding Obsidian (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 1985). His largest writing project is Huge Haiku, an as-yet-unpublished book-length sequence consisting of 17 sets of 17 poems, each with 17 lines of 17 syllables, parts of which have been published or accepted for publication in a variety of magazines, including Ploughshares and Poetry.

Miles David Moore is a Washington reporter for Crain Communications, Inc. He is founder and host of the Iota poetry reading series in Arlington. His books of poetry atre The Bears of Paris (Word Words Capital Collection, 1995) and Buddha Isn’t Laughing (Argonne Hotel Press, 1999). With Karren L. Alenier and Hilary Tham, he co-edited Winners: A Retrospective of the Washington Prize (Word Works, 1999). Fatslug Unbound, a compact disk of various poets readings Moore’s work, was issued in 2000 by Minimus Productions. Moore has won essay and poetry prizes from Poet Lore, Potomac Review, and WordWrights! 

Malcolm Shute leads the Writer’s Way Workshops in DC (www.dcwritersway.org). He is a writer, teacher, and mauscript critic. He is also a modern dancer, performing with Nancy Havlik’s Dance Performance Group and the Jane Franklin Dance Company in the DC area.

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