þÿ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>POETRY AND PROSE FROM IN POSSE REVIEW</title> </head> <body text="#0000CC" bgcolor="#EBFSFC" link="#0099CC" vlink="#0099CC" alink="#0099CC"> &nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <center><table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 > <tr> <td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="35"><img SRC="insposse.gif" height=187 width=30> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p><img SRC="insposse.gif" height=187 width=30> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p><img SRC="insposse.gif" height=187 width=30> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p><img SRC="insposse.gif" height=187 width=30> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p><img SRC="insposse.gif" height=187 width=30> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p><img SRC="insposse.gif" height=187 width=30> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; </td> <td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="25" BGCOLOR="#0000CC">&nbsp;</td> <td WIDTH="15">&nbsp;</td> <td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="400"> <font face="arial" FONT SIZE="+1" COLOR="#0099CC"><B>Three Poems</B></font></font></font><UL> <font face="ariel" FONT size="-1" COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Dan Bellm </B></FONT><BR></UL> <P><BR> <FONT SIZE="+1"><B>Esau</B><P> <P> <font size="+1" color="#0000CC">I</font><font size="-1"> should go home and make peace with my brother.<BR> Trouble is, we re not fighting. Where I come from,<BR> We have such good manners we don t talk to each other.<BR> <P> I should start a good fight. Trouble is, we don t bother.<BR> So I was there when Dad died, and not him;<BR> So I should go and make peace with my brother?<BR> <P> What, did I steal something? I ve known forever<BR> Which one Dad loved; all right. So who s to blame?<BR> We have such good manners, we re each other s<BR> <P> Worst joke of a missing half; stand us together,<BR> The macho man, the dreamer, we look the same.<BR> I should go make peace with my hairy brother,<BR> <P> But I d rather go on resenting him; he d rather<BR> Go on paternally dispensing shame.<BR> I have such good manners; I don t say, <I>It s over<BR> <P> Now: neither one of us gets to be our father<BR> And play the God Almighty.</I> I should go home<BR> And disturb the peace, to make peace with my brother.<BR> We have such good manners, we don t talk to each other.<BR> <P> <I>Vayishlach,</I> Gen. 32:4  36:43 <BR> <P><BR> <B>Milk and honey</B><BR> (from <I>Book of numbers: A war diary, 2003</I>)<BR> <P> <font size="+2">O<font size="+1"> dear God: the land You have promised us<BR> Already has people living in it, and why <BR> Didn t we hear that part before the exodus?<BR> So this is the choice, to live as slaves or die<BR> As slaves to war. Now think: some other place<BR> You haven t got? We sent out men to spy<BR> For us, a sorry lot who claim a race<BR> Of giants lives up there, but what a lie.<BR> Most likely long-lost relatives. Hebron s<BR> A town as old as Esau, walled with stones<BR> They ll gladly throw at us, blood brothers or not.<BR> Couldn t we come in peace, share what we ve got<BR> Including You, settle down and call<BR> It off? But <I>No,</I> You answer. <I> You must dispossess them all.</I><BR> <P> <I>Shelach-lecha,</I> Num. 13:1  15:41 <P> <BR> <B>Before Words</B><BR> <P> <font size="+2">A<font size="+1"> baby is singing in the morning<BR> before anyone is up in the house<BR> <P> Before he has decided<BR> which of all the languages he will speak<BR> he is trying the sounds of his voice<BR> in the ûrst light<BR> <P> He hears a man<BR> come up the street collecting bottles<BR> just ahead of the garbage truck<BR> straining uphill<BR> to come throw them away<BR> <P> He hears the shriek of glass<BR> It is like the vessels of Creation<BR> breaking in God s hands<BR> <P> He hears the wind around the house<BR> and in the wind<BR> every word he will ever say<BR> and what will stay unsaid<BR> <P> and stops to listen to silence<BR> and sings to it<BR> the way the body addresses the soul lending it shape<BR> lending it comfort and sorrow<BR> <P> The body wants to be useful<BR> and the soul is open so wide<BR> <P> This is the way we awaken<BR> He remembers he is alone<BR> and cries for us.<BR> <P> <hr size="1"> <P> <font face="arial" SIZE="-1" color="#FF0000"><b>Dan Bellm <font size=-1 color="#0099CC"> has published two poetry collections: <I>One Hand on the Wheel</I> (1999), which launched Heyday Books' California Poetry Series; and <I>Buried Treasure</I> (Cleveland State University, 1999), winner of Cleveland State s annual Poetry Center Prize and the Poetry Society of America s Di Castagnola Award. His poems and translations from Spanish have appeared in <I>Poetry, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, The Kenyon Review,</I> and elsewhere. A recent California Arts Council Poetry Fellow, he lives in San Francisco and teaches with California Poets in the Schools. <P> "Esau" was first published in <I>The Threepenny Review;</I> "Milk and honey" in <I>Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion;</I> and "Before Words" in <I>One Hand on the Wheel</I> and <I>Against Certainty </I>(Chapiteau Press, 2003). </font> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p><font face="arial" color="#FF0000" size="-1"><i>In Posse:</i> Potentially, might be ...&nbsp;</font><a href=""><img SRC="tedhead.gif" align=RIGHT></a> <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <br>&nbsp; <p> <hr size="1"></td></tr></table></center></body></html>