I ran into the poet Jim Dunn at the Mass. Poetry Festival recently. I asked him for a poem for the LYRICAL and he happily complied. In his featured work Jim goes into a subject he knows intimately: “Poetic Justice.”

Jim Dunn (left) with the late poet John Wieners (sitting)

Poetic Justice

As if
There is
Any other kind

To allow angels
Is tricky business
Get in there and work the pen
To free the words

Chain the feeling
Praying to the wind
Doing nothing
Undoing the unspoken.

Inertia seduces
The Dreaming man
To sleep on it
Until the sun sheds light.

Poetry spins her fickle wheel
To crush or to redeem
Depending on the curve of the spin
All words gather to chain the course
Of life sentences to the breathless tree

Genuflect to the genuine fleeting feeling
Capture a hummingbird in a tea bag
And flutter his soul steeped in warm air

The stars line up
To shine
Not to dole out rewards

The line shines out to star
Not to dim
The heartbroken light.

As if
There is
Any other kind.

— Jim Dunn

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To have your work considered for the LYRICAL send it to:
dougholder@post.harvard.edu