Plum Tree Tavern Elegy

By Royal Rhodes. 

For Russell Streur.

Plums that bent the boughs of Temple trees
Lie as fallen fruit upon the ground,

Untouched by monks of buzzing clouds of bees,

Mixing with a peacock's strident sound.

The palette of these trees reflects each season:

Red that protests when earth's green is gone.

Elegies from owls that test our reason

Emerge to hunt the longed-for coming dawn.

The Tavern Innkeeper who welcomed us --

As water in a river fills these spaces --

Veered away from haiku, pale with fuss.

Each voice he sought had nature's edgy traces.

Returning writers fleeing urban bustle,

Now hear how wind has strewn the leaves that rustle.

Origin Of The Species

By Russell Joseph 

(In honor of my late father, Russell.  May he Rest in Peace - The Plum Tree Tavern's original barkeep.  He has left this establishment to his eldest son - my name is Morgen) 

May he live on forever in this space he loves, crafting words and enjoying collaborators he chose carefully.  He was a judicious editor  & I will continue that legacy.  Some of his dying breaths were to post another poem here. So I will begin with one of his.

We love & miss you Dad ~ Morgen, Devin & Margot ~

"We died in the dust.

We died in the rain.

We died on the hills in the arms of our fathers who came and who died and hung from the crosses and died in the darkness and ashes with our mothers before us.

We died in our beds and we fell from the cliffs and died on the rocks.

We drowned in the sea and we died in the summer and we died the day we were born in famine and plague.

We died on the mountain by fire and stone.

We died in the mouths of hyenas in the jaw of despair and we died in the valley leaving footprints and bone.

We danced on the flood and we climbed on the shore and we stood in the cave in the eye of the lamb and our veins and our lungs were the sound of the drums on the moor in the song of the heart and the hymn of the dove.

We rose out of mud and we came out of clay.

We came out of the tomb and the mouth of the fish and we rose from our graves to the hour of earth from the weave and the warp and the loom of the night.

We came from the ark and the maze and we rose from the dew and we came to the day with the loaves of the bread and the skins of the wine.

We walked on the water and we walked on the moon and we walked on the streets of diamond paved cities in impossible joy wearing dresses of light.

We rose out of dirt and rode on the wind and we wrote on the walls and came up from the wreck of our ships in unfathomable deep with the heart of the ocean passed through by the storm.

We came with the flame and the wand of the stars in our hands on the third morning of May and we came out of desert and we swam on the tides with the breath and the word and the names of our gods on our lips and like heroes and ghosts and lovers survive."