doing cartwheels on doomsday afternoon by John Yamrus

doing cartwheels on doomsday afternoon by John Yamrus is published by Epic Rites Press and is a dead-pan collection of poems focusing on every day life epiphanies and circumstances. Mr. Yamrus pulls no punches, his work is straightforward and to the point. Below I am happy to share a sample with you:

i just now

agreed to an interview.

this one’s
for monday.

it’ll be
the same old questions,

like:

“how’d you get
started?”

“who
do you read?”

and
“who are you influenced by?”

all the same questions
and never once
do i get asked
the right one.

in my
opinion,
the only one.

the one that
says:

“you write a lot about
dogs…

why is that?”

if they’d only
ask me
that

i’d go away
happy.

i’d sit them down
and tell them

exactly

what the dogs
do for me…

they teach me
joy,

perseverance

and
acceptance.

they teach me
total concentration
on a single task.

and
most of all
they teach me
the secret…

the answer to
the one question
i’m asked the most.

the one question
that i’ll never
answer.

they wouldn’t
believe me
even if i
did.

they’d think
i’m lying.

but, you won’t,
will you?

the truth
is

the great secret
these dogs
teach me

is
there isn’t
any.

I like this poem because I am usually the one interviewing someone else and hoping I can go beyond the typically asked question and know the writer has a question they’re dying for someone to ask them. This poem illustrates it perfectly along with adding the wisdom of canines—that there are no secrets in life, just life itself.



giving

them
what they
want

can
be hard

on
a man’s

soul.

This poem speaks the plain and simple truth, no further words needed.



New York just

wasn’t
the same.

i remember
as a kid

everything was
gray and brown

like
the old movies,

and my uncle
had this
2nd floor
walk-up,

with a
single bulb
hanging from a wire
at the top of the stairs.

i remember the night
someone
dropped
a bag of bottles
down the steps,
and the neighbors
yelled,

and my uncle
yelled
back

and the soft
grays

and warm browns

felt safe,

and
we lounged around
in the alleys of the universe.

no, New York’s not
the same.

nothing is.

except for maybe
that old girl,
sorrow.

This poem casts a warm glow on an unusual memory of bottles crashing down the stairs amidst the brown and gray tones of city life. I can’t help but wonder what the poet saw the next time he was in New York that brought about this particular memory and lament.

Mr. Yamrus has published 17 volumes of poetry and 2 novels, his work has been translated into several languages and has been taught in high school and college curriculums. Some of his titles include: New and Selected Poems, Blue Collar, Shoot The Moon, Someone Else’s Dream (a novel), and many more. If you enjoyed this review of doing cartwheels on doomsday afternoon by John Yamrus you may purchase a copy for $20.00 from Epic Rites Press by going to:

http://www.epicrites.org/bookstore.html

Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…