{"id":3152,"date":"2015-12-22T06:46:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T12:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/?p=3152"},"modified":"2020-09-05T03:50:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T08:50:49","slug":"stone-and-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/stone-and-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone and Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Poems by<\/h4>\n

Tom Sheehan<\/a><\/h2>\n

\"Stone<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stone Menagerie<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

What is inordinate
\nare the hippopotami of rocks
\nat Nahant,
\nthick-skulled,
\nunblinking, refusing
\nto mourn themselves;
\na half-displaced
\nsurge out of sand as if
\nthey’ve lost their breath
\nin that terrible
\nunderworld of salt
\nand constant push.<\/p>\n

Their shoulders
\nbeam as smooth as agates
\nfrom the iodized wash,
\ngray pavilions
\nof armor plate massive
\nin titillating breezes.<\/p>\n

Some are remote,
\nthe unknown at reunions
\nholding quiet places,
\nwaiting for recognition
\nin a place in the pool,
\na niche in the sun.<\/p>\n

Only the sun
\nenters these huge hearts
\nand moves them,
\nonly the sun
\nstirs the core where
\nmemory has upheaval.<\/p>\n

But in moonlight,
\nas the cold year ends down
\nand sand leaps to lace
\nas intricate
\nas six-point stitching,
\nthe broad backsides
\nbecome mirrors
\nand a handful of earthquake
\nglows at rest.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Barn on Blackberry Hill Road<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Buried in a wash of vine and leaf,
\ndyed of mahogany and dead maize
\nleft too long to the weathering,
\nrebuked it must seem of sunlight
\nitself, ripening under dark edges,
\none barn on Blackberry Hill Road
\npromises itself this new century.<\/p>\n

A hundred years of sweat stain
\ndark hardness of its oaken guts,
\nits boned, inner silhouetting; mock
\nresidue now becomes too soft
\nfor its own well-being, the stretch
\nof one creature across seasons
\ntoo fallible for the given mark.<\/p>\n

I have hidden eighty years of life
\nunder odd-cut posts and beams,
\nleaped here headless and heedless
\nof summer\u2019s endings, fall\u2019s too
\nshort bits of sunlight in eaves
\noh so full of August madness, sieves
\nof my dare deviling at dreaming<\/p>\n

And soft crumbling oak wood takes
\ninto itself, drafty combustion
\nof tree, leaf and solitary pod wind-
\nswept, flying so high and dry
\none might think it\u2019s all planned,
\nthe documents scribed a hundred
\nyears later on neat-line parchment.<\/p>\n

Probably darker than it ought,
\nbeing so stretched out in centuries,
\nwearing years and hard self in grain
\nbrowned and kneeling down and servile;
\nhas suffered longingly for cow and horse
\nand miraculous mule strung in straps
\nand old leather goods we can smell<\/p>\n

As if they have left a bit of bite
\nfor our odoring, luggage creatures
\nand skins\u2019 last signature remarks;
\npelt ink stains barn boards, salt bares
\nfrosted elements, and hoof authority,
\nthe awful and momentous authority
\nof shod hooves, carves out erosion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Tom Sheehan<\/strong> served in 31st<\/sup> Infantry, Korea 1951-52. His books are: Epic Cures; Brief Cases, Short Spans<\/em>; Collection of Friends<\/em>; From the Quickening; The Saugus Book; Ah, Devon Unbowed; Reflections from Vinegar Hill; This Rare Earth & Other Flights<\/em>. eBooks include Korean Echoes (<\/em>nominated for a Distinguished Military Award)<\/em>, The Westering,<\/em> (nominated for National Book Award); <\/em> Murder at the Forum<\/em>, Death of a Lottery Foe, Death by Punishment, <\/em>and An Accountable Death. <\/em>His work has appeared in Rosebud, Linnet\u2019s Wings,<\/em> KYSO Flash <\/em>(with haibun and tanka poems), Soundings East, Vermont Literary Review,<\/em> Literary Orphans<\/em>, Indiana Voice Journal, Provo Canyon Review<\/em>, Nazar Look, Eastlit, Green Silk Journal, The Path, <\/em>and FaithHopeandFiction.com<\/em>. He has 28 Pushcart nominations. In the Garden of Long Shadows<\/em> and The Nations (<\/em>Native American fiction collection)<\/em>, were recently published by Pocol Press with solid reviews (see Serving House Journal.<\/em>) Now in the Pocol production cycle are Where Skies Grow Wide, Cross Trails <\/em>and Between Mountain and River<\/em>, the last five titles from Pocol Press are all western short story collections. In addition, a new collection, Sons of Guns, Inc.<\/em> was just released (print and eBook) by Nazar Look Books in Romania, which contains 7 western short stories among others.<\/p>\n

Photo by Patrica Crisafulli<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Poems by Tom Sheehan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,48,1],"tags":[142,59,97],"class_list":["post-3152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-tom-sheehan","category-uncategorized","tag-contemplative","tag-nature","tag-poem"],"yoast_head":"\nStone and Land | Faith Hope & Fiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/stone-and-land\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stone and Land | Faith Hope & Fiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two Poems by Tom Sheehan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/stone-and-land\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Hope & Fiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FaithHopeAndFiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-22T12:46:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-05T08:50:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/stone-and-land_poetry-by-tom-sheehan.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TrishCrisafulli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TrishCrisafulli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Faith Hope & Fiction\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FaithHopeAndFiction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TrishCrisafulli\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/faith-hope-fiction_logo.png\",\"width\":350,\"height\":350,\"caption\":\"Faith Hope & Fiction\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Hope & Fiction\",\"description\":\"Quality Online Fiction, Poetry, and Essays\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/stone-and-land\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/stone-and-land_poetry-by-tom-sheehan.png\",\"width\":630,\"height\":298,\"caption\":\"Stone and Land - 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