These are poems from a project called POND. Every day, for one year, I will walk to our pond, jot a few notes, and take a photo or two. Then I’ll write a 4-line acrostic using P, O, N, D as my first letters, with the extra caveat of never using the same first-word twice. I began the book on November 9, 2018 – will finish November 9, 2019.

—

11.20.18

11.33 a.m.

34 degrees

Pluvial night, the rain hangs on as mist.

Opiod-ripples as a branch releases its gems of rain,

normal and lonely an act as releasing its leaves,

downward in silence, all around me the sound of rushing water.

—

11.22.18

8.54 a.m.

12 degrees

Thanksgiving

Perforated by the wind, each tree creaks, and I see

only the spaces between them roughly outlined.

Nightspot of cloudy ice crowds the spout;

driven ripples ride the thin coastline of ice covering half the pond.

—

11.27.18

12.22 a.m.

35 degrees

Pond completely thawed

Prostrate switchgrass, brown now; not much else green

outside of the coarse cedar, its knuckled cones,

needles, and sweet ubiquitous scent.

Downwind, even standing in two feet of snow, I’ll summon spring.

—

John L. Stanizzi is author of the full-length collections – Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, and Four Bits – Fifty 50-Word Pieces. His newest book, Chants, will be out in February with Cervena Barva Press.