Templar Phoenix Literary Review - Volume 1, Number 2 - Summer 2000
DUANE LOCKE
Circe on a White Camel
October and I drifted over hyacinths,
Drank white wine, ate chestnuts, bamboo.
On the banks, a girl rode by on a white camel.
Husbands at picnics dropped their plastic forks.
It was you, Circe, riding among reeds,
Dragonflies whose tails had blue tips.
Seeing you, Circe, I heard the excited chattering
Of small birds in love, concealed by vines.
The shadows of willows did a wild dance,
Shook the fringes of their green skirts.
Before You, Circe
Every night, I painted the mask
For next day's face.
I melted the wax
For the mold
To make wax flowers.
I held the broken end of an icicle,
This ice I held was my love.
Now, since I found you, Circe, a thousand poppies
Have taken off their black-spotted, red dresses,
Stand naked in wild fields,
Their naked shoulders spotted by magpie shadows.
About the Poet
Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy in Renaissance Literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities,
Poet in Residence at University of Tampa for over twenty years, he has had over 2,000 of his own
poems published in over 500 print magazines such as American Poetry Review, Nation, Literary Quarterly,
Black Moon, and Bitter Oleander, is author of 14 books of poems, his latest being WATCHING WISTERIA.
As a cyber-poet, since Sept 1, 1999, Dr. Locke has had 840 acceptances of his poems by online ezines;
winner for poetry of the Edna St. Vincent Millay, Charles Agnoff, and Walt Whitman awards. Dr.
Locke now lives alone and isolated in the sunny Tampa slums. He lives estranged and as an alien,
not understanding the customs, the costumes, the language, some form of postmodern English, of
his surroundings. His recreational activities are drinking wine, listening to old operas, and
reading postmodern philosophy.
E-Mail: duanelocke@netzero.net
Copyright © 2000-2001 by Denis M. Garrison.