My Friend Allan

Allan Peterson, who is both a poet AND a visual artist (Grrr!!!), won the 2005 Juniper Prize for his poetry book, All the Lavish in Common--which is now available. (The art on the cover is his too.) Allan writes smart, beautiful, lyric poems. He's also a great guy. Below is an older poem of his, one of my favorites.



CONJUNCTIONS
for Bob and Janice Kanyusik

Dandelion rings were the first jewelry
that glittered in the yard like bug lights.
On a given finger a yellow dwarf rested
-Star of Wisconsin- the stalk that slips into itself
like a wish, and the sap that sticks first to memory
then to everything like the earliest question:
who was graphite, who pearls.
I would say Bob gives Janice a float for her ankles.
I would say the lake is married to the shore
and a wetsuit blooms in the screen house because of October,
taking a last look before it freezes.
Someone drifting by might say look how the lake
of plique à jour fits the rocks perfectly. Say I do. I do.
How a figure backlit even in full sun faces forward
and backward at the same time like the spirits of doorways.
How the space of Euclid is the platter of the sun
and leaving the water each late droplet has its own.
Wisconsin opens its jeweled connection to the galaxy.
Bob says something circular to her. The planets dance.


Allan Peterson