Origin Stories - Thomas A. Thomas

Almost

    Almost
    by Thomas A. Thomas

    Through the dream veil 
    made of orchids another 
    timeline appears
    in this one, horses hobbled
    so as not to graze too far
    overnight and behind them 
    on the backdrop of an alpine lake 
    the floatplanes land and
    take off, or float like kittiwakes
    The horses are fat & fit
    and the weather is fine
    but something has not opened 
   in the day and still she says no.

    Or orchids stand silent witness 
    within the dimension of this 
    timeline, as she taps with a key
    on the frame of his door, the 
    door opens, her umbrella closes
    then drops to the floor along
    with purse, raincoat, skirt,
    blouse, panties, bra, a path
    to the bed where time is endless
    for a long languorously wanton 
    rain-dark Tuesday afternoon.
 
    Or it’s the same Tuesday
    with white orchids under 
    his lamp on the windowsill
    gleaming beside the steel 
    colored rain on the glass, past
    the time they had thought 
    she might come for tea 
    and poetry and perhaps love
    would join them, savory, sweet
    delight of their skin and 
    flesh so long neglected
    but this time she said her
    no on the phone, by text, no
    not this timeline either. with
    some regret, though not enough.

Origin Stories – ekphrastic poem Almost

The inspiration for this poem was an ancient one: longing for a person who kept approaching, coming close, even making plans for a rendezvous, but then slipping away. So I sort of had 3 poems on that subject, one from a night dream, another from a daydream, and a 3^rd from the earthly story. And I didn’t really like any of the poems very much, but as I was gazing at this unfinished painting of orchids, it occurred to me that the orchids could be the thread to stitch these 3 little poems into a whole. And the “unfinished” state of the painting was perfectly aligned with the unfinished business of the poem!

BIO

Thomas A. Thomas was born in Illinois, but after more than 41 years as a resident of Washington he most definitely considers the Pacific Northwest region his homeland.

At University of Michigan, Thomas A. Thomas, poet/photographer, studied with Donald Hall, Gregory Orr, and Robert Bly. He won Minor and Major Hopwood Awards in Poetry, and his poem “Approaching Here” was choreographed and performed at UM. He has for years been actively engaged in OPN and in the critique group Live Like a Poet, founded by Joanne Clarkson.

His poetry and photographs appear in print and online, most recently in Cirque Journal, Gyroscope Review, Blue Heron Review, Vox Populi Sphere, TheBanyanReview.org & FemAsiaMagazine.com, as well as anthologies in English and Serbian and in translation to Spanish, Serbian, and Bengali.

His collection, “Getting Here” is available on Bookshop.org and other e-book and printed book sources. He was nominated for both Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize for 2022.

Linktree (one link to rule them all): https://linktr.ee/thomasathomas