{"id":57405,"date":"2021-03-07T00:52:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T06:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=57405"},"modified":"2021-03-06T22:59:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T04:59:35","slug":"five-poems-by-jared-pearce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/five-poems-by-jared-pearce\/","title":{"rendered":"Five poems by Jared Pearce"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ LOCAL First<\/strong> boasts Utah\u2019s most comprehensive collection of poets and authors. Today, we bring you five poems by Jared Pearce. Pearce obtained a Master’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, and a PhD (in American Poetry,\u00a0 19th<\/sup> & 20th<\/sup> Century British Literature, and Critical Theory) from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette.<\/p>\n

His books include Down Their Spears<\/em>\u00a0(Cyberwit) and\u00a0The Annotated Murder of One<\/em>\u00a0(Aubade). Pearce is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His poem \u201cFoundry\u201d took first place in the 2014 BYU Studies Quarterly competition. Presently, he lives and writes in the state of Iowa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Midst<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/h4>\n

Dustbowl conditions, they say.<\/h4>\n

Hottest on record, they report.<\/h4>\n

My corn is empty shells\u2014<\/h4>\n

even the deer are hungry, I\u2019m<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

told. The yellow grass sighs,<\/h4>\n

and the apple leaves shy<\/h4>\n

towards their own shade.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

Roses, decimated by white<\/h4>\n

flies, have black spot stripping<\/h4>\n

their stems. Their blossoms<\/h4>\n

bulb like tears.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

Yet from between the crinkled,<\/h4>\n

thorned stalks, a straight,<\/h4>\n

perfect naked lady pinks.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Work<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

The city men have shut off the water<\/h4>\n

for the whole neighborhood. They have cut<\/h4>\n

a hole in the street and are working so<\/h4>\n

they can restore water to the people.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

Their round bodies are serious, their shouting<\/h4>\n

voices muffled under their pumping<\/h4>\n

machines are serious, and their tossing<\/h4>\n

of tools, their gazing into the hole,<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

their correcting and commenting on the work,<\/h4>\n

all serious, dedicated\u2014they even have the water<\/h4>\n

back on as they\u2019d promised. Though the hole<\/h4>\n

remains, they left warnings. Having looked in,<\/h4>\n

I could make nothing of their business<\/h4>\n

except the twinge of envy for finishing something.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sentence Patterns<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/h4>\n

The sentences are here.<\/h4>\n

The students are not necessarily happy.<\/h4>\n

They are what they are.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

We seem to be lost in thought before them.<\/h4>\n

We become our hands, fumbling<\/h4>\n

after words, sliding away.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

We consider.<\/h4>\n

Our black belts reveal<\/h4>\n

our mastery over this tongue,<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

and our blurry black eyes make<\/h4>\n

out that language will<\/h4>\n

have its way with us.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where Beauty Goes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/h4>\n

Dad mailed me the perfect skipping stone:<\/h4>\n

only one dimple on one side, otherwise<\/h4>\n

already honed by the water, all ready<\/h4>\n

to brush again what tuned it.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

It\u2019s shaped like a heart without a point,<\/h4>\n

the long side snug against my palm,<\/h4>\n

my index finger canoodles the opposite<\/h4>\n

crease, comfy like a trigger.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

One half-inch thick then tapered<\/h4>\n

from the center to its rounded edge,<\/h4>\n

hefty to hold against the wing and bang<\/h4>\n

off the lake\u2019s face.<\/h4>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Holding it the tension<\/h4>\n

rinses in: to keep admiring<\/h4>\n

or fling and drown that thing.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tune<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/h4>\n

Another droughty year and<\/h4>\n

still the night is crickets<\/h4>\n

and birds are morning.<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

The year has its coercion,<\/h4>\n

but while I can I pick this<\/h4>\n

guitar and rattle my rusted<\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

larynx. There must be war<\/h4>\n

and beleagueredness, there<\/h4>\n

must be a song to solve this.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information: https:\/\/jaredpearcepoetry.weebly.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

READ LOCAL First boasts Utah\u2019s most comprehensive collection of poets and authors. Today, we bring you five poems by Jared Pearce. Pearce obtained a Master’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, and a PhD (in American Poetry,\u00a0 19th & 20th Century British Literature, and Critical Theory) from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":57406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/JPearce-AMoO-Orig.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 13:16:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57405"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57416,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57405\/revisions\/57416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}