The Sunday Poet: Susan Tepper

Susan Tepper is the author of seven published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent title “Monte Carlo Days & Nights” is a Novella set in the South of France. For more please visit her website at www.susantepper.com

Petal by Petal

The moon has settled down

to dust, and the sadness

of time overwhelms

your eyes—

Each morning

blurring

an otherwise unobstructed view

they scarcely open

Despite the beauty of

the day

beckoning

beyond window shades—

O darkness

scrape away what you can

gouge them ‘til they open wide

Letting in deliverance petal by petal.

The Sunday Poet: Susan Tepper

Poet Susan Tepper

Susan Tepper has been a writer for twenty years. Her stories, poems, interviews and essays have been published extensively worldwide. An award-winning author, Tepper has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and once for a Pulitzer Prize for the novel. 'Let's Talk' her column at Black Heart Magazine runs monthly. FIZZ her reading series at KGB Bar, NYC, has been ongoing for eight years. Before settling down to study writing, Tepper worked as an actor, singer, flight attendant, marketing manager, tour guide, television producer, interior decorator, rescue worker and more

Give

If you don’t have cash

to spare

give an apple, anyone can

afford one apple, or

maybe a muffin,

a corn muffin for a

stomach on a cold night

anyone could,

Or maybe you could

give a coat

you never wear anymore

stuffed in the dusty

back of your closet, there

must be sweaters and jackets

back in there, too,

you could give

gathering cobwebs

you could shake off

in the fresh air,

you could give a scarf or

peaches in a can,

anyone could

spare a can of cling peaches

from inside your cupboard,

smashed against other cans and

spices and crinkly bags of

pasta, maybe you could give

a sandwich, some meat and cheese

between two slices

of bread, anyone could

give a sandwich.

So many things

lying about you could give

without missing

a single beat.

The Sunday Poet: Susan Tepper

Poet Susan Tepper

Susan Tepper has been a writer for twenty years. Her stories, poems, interviews and essays have been published extensively worldwide. An award-winning author, Tepper has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and once for a Pulitzer Prize for the novel. 'Let's Talk' her column at Black Heart Magazine runs monthly. FIZZ her reading series at KGB Bar, NYC, has been ongoing for eight years. Before settling down to study writing, Tepper worked as an actor, singer, flight attendant, marketing manager, tour guide, television producer, interior decorator, rescue worker and more.

Last

In sand you trace a star

before the sea covers its light

that last time – from memory

sketching a cloud in flour

the table to winter

frosted walls, icicles

hung from chairs – you kept

blowing on your hands

insisting that was the last

The Sunday Poet: Susan Tepper

Susan Tepper

Susan Tepper is the author of six published books of fiction and poetry. She lives in the NY area with her husband and her dog Otis.  She has been a writer for twenty years. www.susantepper.com


 

AFTER/DURING for Chris Nguyen

In a pleasant corner of the garden

we sip tea and crunch biscuits

Each telling what we remember

about that war

You what you remember

After— when

our country conceded

to that split country: North & South

leaving it in ruin

Once divided as we are now

but only by a garden wall

shared and tended,

slathered in honeysuckle,

primrose, vine.

I didn’t see that country

when you saw it

after—

Not nearly one percent

of what you saw.

I saw it during the

loading of soldiers and

the half dead onto planes

then from the air where

everything’s small and

smudged like in a painting

While what you saw were

beginnings of a level plane

on which to finally land.