Clouds as Inkblots For the War Prone

Consider the earth as more than a speck in the night,
sky more than chalk on a warboard. Consider a swarm,

thick, an advancing cloud. Perhaps to the stouter brain,
such darkness becomes a far-off foe, slight, with no more

than spit enough to swallow. To the hair-triggered eye,
it may be the fog of four thousand fighters in flight,

each with a finger touch, light like the broken angel’s
wing. We know all gunners spit flame. So let the swarm be

a rush of bees. Let it be a bevy of starlings,
birds beyond number, newly fledged. Let it be a bright

mission of men, our familiars, not yet thunderborne,
their groomed young faces never to want for a kickstorm

of lead, never to bore-in once more unto the breach,
for God and country, for flying pay, with a command
of death and a gladness to kill.

[from my chapbook Clouds as Inkblots for the War Prone
  remix poem, source text: Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens].

Pulitzer Remix for National Poetry Month

April is Poetry Month! To celebrate, I've joined the Pulitzer Remix, sponsored by The Found Poetry Review. There are 85 poets across 7 countries participating. Each poet will create found poetry from one of the 85 Pulitzer Prize winners. 85 poets, a poem a day, 30 days.  

If you go to the site (www.pulitzerremix.com/), you'll see the book covers of all 85 Pulitzer Prize winners. Click on a title to read the day's poem from that book. If you want to know more, here's a link to the project: http://www.pulitzerremix.com/about/ .

My book is GUARD OF HONOR, the 1949 Pulitzer winner by James Gould Cozzens. If you want to check on how I'm doing, starting on April 1, I'll be remixing here: http://www.pulitzerremix.com/category/guard-of-honor. You'll see an image of the book cover for each day. If you hover over the image, you'll see the day the poem was posted and  a teaser line. Click on the image to read that day's poem.