John L. Stanizzi

POND

8.2.19
7.44 a.m.
59 degrees

Puzzling how one morning the air is packed with the industry of birds who
obsess over the feeders, and other morning’s comprise the limited
nomenclature of a single cardinal, and way off into the hills, Munson,
detailed as a simple tree line, allows the occasional car light to pass through the trees like a star.

John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections  Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, and Sundowning, and besides One Sentence Poems, he has been widely published.

John L. Stanizzi

POND

7.29.19
8.16 a.m.
76 degrees

Pity is the shade of this morning’s heat,
offended by my fleshy obstinance, and the non-
negotiable parching of the pond bed,
distinction of desolation and withering water.

John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections , Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, and Sundowning, and besides One Sentence Poems, he has been widely published.

John L. Stanizzi

POND

7.28.19
3.38 p.m.
84 degrees

Painting the banks brown, the pond has been strangled,
obloquy of nature, stripping away water like memories lost,
neighbors concerned as the arid afternoon rises, and young frogs
drowse on the dirt banks that two days ago were underwater.

John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections  Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, and Sundowning, and besides One Sentence Poems, he has been widely published.

We’re fans of John L. Stanizzi’s ambitious POND project. John writes, “The poems are acrostics. Everyday, at different times during the day, I visit our pond with notebook and camera in hand. I jot down some notes, take a picture or two, if a good photo op. presents itself. Then I head home and write a four line acrostic using the letters P, O, N, and D. The other caveat, which makes the project so interesting to me, is that I cannot use any of my first words more than once. I need a different P, O, N, or D word every day; I began the book on November 9, 2018 and completed it on November 8, 2019, without ever missing a single day.” 

For more of these on One Sentence Poems, type John’s name in the search box.

John L. Stanizzi

POND

7.12.19
8.05 a.m.
72 degrees

Preening and twittering and singing themselves dry, the morning’s
oratory is song – red-winged, goldfinch, yellow warbler, red-belly –
noisy and excited, flying up and down and sideways, a
doodle of lines in feathers all across the humid gray morning.

John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections , Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, and Sundowning, and besides One Sentence Poems, he has been widely published.