John Amen In One Art

https://oneartpoetry.com/2025/04/27/two-poems-by-john-amen/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ7XF5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFQR2JVTklNQjRNdG8xNTJXAR7peayXuvn2SVMyml2xs0pp6z6WptsyO53Wr9OXkjqthp37xcwNAjzob0MOFQ_aem_VSFLZF0DURHSXSfotsFOlQ 

Poem for Now

 

When I get to the top

I know the mountain

Is only this high.

 

I am not exceptional

So it makes sense that

This is my climb.

 

Roots and rocks

At seven o’clock

Each step, each intention.

 

Green beans and mayhem

Be damned above

The tree line.

 

Ghosts dogs

Go with me

When I call their names.

 

Every time I climb

The past

Grows smaller.

 

Hugo the Hornet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i61c0mxq86A 

 

About to Knock

 

Behind the busted clapboard shack

A sea of broken lawnmowers swam

In a pine-needle gulley.

A swarm of mopeds more abandoned

Than parked in the grassless yard,

Tarpapered windows

Kept the world at length.

The finance creditor stopped

His Buick Regal by the road,

Stepped perilously through

Thistle and briar bush toward

The stepless plywood porch.

In the sun nothing stirred.

Till he stood at the door,

An expensive steel contraption

With a teardrop window,

About to knock.

Interesting but don't know how it translates

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2024/trump-harris-donors-zip-code-map/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f006&utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3f669f0%2F671a7190f4ba5a5e73f0838e%2F602b21109bbc0f73f6763a21%2F13%2F57%2F671a7190f4ba5a5e73f0838e 

Work Poem 2

 

There is a Green Hill Far Away

 

The highlight of my career

Was reading aloud

The Nelson-Denny Reading Test

To a group of five students

Whose test accommodations

Included but were not

Limited to having tests

Read aloud. The first part was

On vocabulary and

I would read a sentence with

A highlighted word and the

Four possible words that defined

It. I would pause while they made

Their guesses. Two students had

Scribes, a couple retired nurses

From the community who

Marked the Scantron sheets for their

Students. Someone usually

Had a question which slowed the

Process to a maddening

Pace. The second part required

The students to listen to

A passage and answer questions

Regarding the content. I

Read, listening to a ticking

Fluorescent light, the student

Who constantly tapped his

Knuckles on the table and

Watched the scribes wince as they blacked

The wrong answer their student

Had chosen. After three hours,

The crucifixion was finished.

I bought Cokes for each of the

Students, and they were happy

As I had ever seen them.

Castle Dracula