December 31, 2018 – January 6, 2019: Poetry from John Grey and Clifford Bernier

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Bio (auto)

John Grey is an Australian poet, Providence, Rhode Island US resident. He has recently been published in the Homestead Review, Harpur Palate and Columbia Review, with work upcoming in the Roanoke Review, the Hawaii Review and North Dakota Quarterly.

Party’s End

weary from hustling hors d’oeuvres
for hours on end,
having given all to the company of others,
it’s time for the hosts to retreat
behind the closed front door
into their own needs –
no more wondering whether the wine will see out
the thirst of so many
or worried that the music’s too loud
or too soft
and the conversation is stale
or overwrought –
now’s the time
to wonder and worry about each other –
"like some tomato bruschetta?"
says she –
"don’t mind if I do,"
says he –
luckily,
hors d’oeuvres still have a role
to play in their lives.

Clifford Bernier
cliffber@erols.com

Bio (auto)

Clifford Bernier’s The Silent Art won the 2010 Gival Press Poetry Award and was published in October 2011. Mr. Bernier is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Earth Suite, The Montserrat Review’s Best Chapbook Summer 2010 and nominated for a Library of Virginia award; and Dark Berries, one of The Montserrat Review’s Best Books for Spring Reading 2010. In January 2010 he appeared on the National Public Radio show, “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress.” He has published online and is featured on a CD of poetry duets, Poetry in Black and White, as well as on two jazzpoetry CDs, Live at IOTA Club and Cafe and Live at Bistro Europa. He is anthologized in poem, home, an anthology of “Ars Poetica.” Mr. Bernier has been featured in readings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, and the Washington, DC area, including the Library of Congress, the Arts Club of Washington, George Washington University (where he is a member of the Washington Writer’s Collection) and the Writer’s Center. A native of Alexandria, Virginia, he has been a reader for the Washington Prize and a judge for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud recitation contest. He has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and a Best of the Net Award. Visit Cliff on the web here.

All the Winds

(Ode to the jazz harmonica)

All the winds that ever were
blow through this harp.

The Scirocco, scorching Africa,
the Mistral, storming the Rhône,
trade winds charting the Indies,
Westerlies pumping heat
from the Horse Latitudes
to the coasts of Capricorn and Cancer,
the Pampero on the Pampas,
Doldrums in the tropics.

All the winds that ever were
blow through this harp.

From the first star, music of the spheres,
Aeolus conjuring cyclones,
Zephyr foretelling Spring,
Fei Lian, summoning the sunlight,
twisting tornadoes, rubatos,
monsoons and hurricanes, shear,
planetary pressures spiralling squalls,
Willy-Nilly and the dust devils.

All the winds that ever were
blow through this harp.

The winds of change,
the four sheets, pissing, spitting,
downburst, up-tempo,
the Polar Easterlies, sloping to derecho,
the Bise, kissing the Alps,
the Buron in Siberia, Rudra surfing the Loos,
the jazz that composes life,
movement in deep time.

All the winds that ever were
blow through this harp.

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December 31, 2018 – January 6, 2019: Poetry from John Grey and Clifford Bernier

Party’s End

All the Winds

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