Any Minor Art World
A young man carries a chair
into the meadow where he plans to eat
his sandwich and sip from a can of warm Coke.
He’s far too young to be alone in this life
and even a tiny frayed lawn chair can feel
as heavy as a stranger.
But he’ll get to where he’s going
and lunch with the grazing cows
perhaps sharing with the ancient herd
his photos of the Grand Canyon.
Maybe he’ll let loose a secret or two,
let his mind mosey into the beauty
as it scolds him for not noticing it earlier –
the great green pasture;
the attendant niceties of color and line,
love and sorrow sneaking in beneath the fences
pretending to look like something else.
Micheal Martin is a writer, editor and film-maker living in North Carolina. His first collection of poetry, Extended Remark was published by Portals Press in 2015. For many years his poetry, feature-journalism and fiction have appeared in U.S. and European publications. Poems from his new poetry manuscript first appeared in literary journals such as American Journal of Poetry, Poetry Ireland, New Orleans Review, RHINO & Salamander, among many others. In 2021 he collaborated with the Irish film production company, Morgan Creative to produce and direct two poetry-films of his work which continue to be officially selected and awarded in international film festival competitions such as the most recent, Buenos Aires International Film Festival. For a decade Martin lived in Amsterdam where he was a feature writer with Amsterdam Weekly; in 2010 he edited the Harper’s anthology, Rules of the Game: The Best Sports Writing from Harper’s Magazine.