Search

Poetry Breakfast

Serving a little poetic nourishment Monday thru Friday and featuring a Short Play Saturday Matinee to read.

Category

Peter M. Gordon

Tick…Tick…Tick… – A Poem by Peter M. Gordon

Tick…Tick…Tick…
A poem by Peter M. Gordon


Tick…Tick…Tick…

I host a bomb in my body.
Only doctors who read scans see it.
Sometimes I can feel its ticking.
Sometimes I can forget it’s there.

Sarcoidosis, doctors name it. Latin
word makes it sound scientific.
Perhaps we can learn to disarm it.
“Long as you show no symptoms”

says Doctor James, “you’ve got plenty
of time to write that will, put affairs
in order.” Somehow I’m not comforted.
I bargain for time. Whine to God, “I’ll

be good,” like a six year-old before
Christmas. Substitute mineral water
for alcohol, volunteer for food banks.
How I regret now those debaucheries

of my twenties
thirties
forties
fifties –

last week.
Each day I pray my bomb stays
asleep until I earn my place among
the angels. This time I really mean it.


About the Author:

Peter M. Gordon won the Thomas Burnett Swan Poetry Prize awarded by the Gwendolyn Brooks Writer’s Association of Florida. He’s published over 100 poems and two collections. Peter is a founder and current President of Orlando Area Poets, a chapter of the Florida State Poets Association. He hosts the FSPA’s monthly open mic and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. 


Poetry Breakfast is an online journal publishing poetry and short plays.
If you’d like your poems considered for publication visit our Poetry Submissions page.
If you’d like your short play considered for publication visit our Short Play Submissions page.


I Want to Be Married at Home Plate – A Poem by Peter M. Gordon

 I Want to Be Married at Home Plate

My bride in a frilly white dress spilling
over the white rectangle marking
the left hand batter’s box

She twists her spikes into sugary dirt
digging in at the back of the box peering
over her shoulder and through the veil at

Lefty, the minister, toeing the pitcher’s rubber
Day so dazzling we wear long brim caps
Bride slowly swings her bat back and forth

I race in from third in my morning coat
Execute a perfect hook slide around the catcher
shower brown clay all over her dress

She pulls me to stand by her side
We brush each other off, grab bats
take our stances, stare down Lefty

Who lobs in a softball: “do you
promise to cleave to one another,
forsaking all others?”

We knock it out of the park.
Start life together dirty
sliding home just under the tag.

 

This poem also appears in Peter M. Gordon’s, Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball available  at Amazon.

 

About the Poet:
Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and websites, including Slipstream, Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, and the Sandhill Review. He recently released a chapbook, “Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball.” His first collection, Two Car Garage, was published by CHB Media. Peter’s a freelance journalist and sportswriter whose work appeared in over one dozen books and publications ranging from The New York Daily News to the West Orange Times-Observer. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Let’s Play Two can be purchased at Amazon.

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

Good Bottle – A Poem by Peter M. Gordon

Good Bottle

It’s a good bottle of wine
Dry, with a hint of plum
infused aroma of dark Napa soil

I am drinking this housewarming gift
in my freshly painted kitchen
in the middle of the night

Lifting the glass
to the lamplight. Warm red
liquid rolls over my tongue

Swirling the dregs
while stars gleam
through the bay window

The wine is the night
flowing through my throat
to my farthest fingertips

A thrush sings
from the sycamore
in the backyard

sun’s glow below
horizon burnishes
eastern clouds

I drain the last drops
place the bottle in
a blue recycling tub

rinse the glass
where did
the night go

It was
a good bottle
of wine

 

 

 

About the Poet:
Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and websites, including Slipstream, Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, and the Sandhill Review. He recently released a chapbook, “Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball.” His first collection, Two Car Garage, was published by CHB Media. Peter’s a freelance journalist and sportswriter whose work appeared in over one dozen books and publications ranging from The New York Daily News to the West Orange Times-Observer. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Let’s Play Two can be purchased at Amazon.

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

Reading Seamus Heaney While Watching Baseball – A Poem by Peter M. Gordon

Reading Seamus Heaney While Watching Baseball

Funeral in Derry shouldering my father’s casket. Fastball on the outside corner catches the cleanup hitter looking.
Grandfather cuts sod, downing a pint of milk amidst green, rolling fields. Batter tops ball toward third and sprints down one side of the sharp green diamond.
Head swiveling down to book, up to screen.
Heaney conjures gods who live around the corner. I dig fingers in deep peat, smell the sod while today’s gods dance in the outfield in pinstripes.
Thor’s hammer swoops through grey clouds.
Vikings anchor in Galway Bay. White ball flies through blue skies tracked by the outfielder who gloves it at the wall.
My sofa’s a ship flying over the Atlantic back to ancestral sod and peat-roofed huts.
I play catch with leprechauns.
Keep one ear turned to play-by-play.
“Reading Seamus Heaney While Watching Baseball” can be found in Peter M. Gordon’s newest collection of poems Let’s Play Two: Poems About Baseball.

 

About the Poet:
Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and websites, including Slipstream, Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, and the Sandhill Review. He recently released a chapbook, “Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball.” His first collection, Two Car Garage, was published by CHB Media. Peter’s a freelance journalist and sportswriter whose work appeared in over one dozen books and publications ranging from The New York Daily News to the West Orange Times-Observer. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Let’s Play Two can be purchased at Amazon.

 

Photo by from Unsplash.

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

Rays Fans – A Poem by Peter M. Gordon

Rays Fans

Every April we fall in love
with twenty-five men

knowing they will break
our hearts.

We whisper their true names
in late night stat sessions.

Carry talismans embossed
with team symbols.

Each win fine wine.

Only we fans, tempered
by years of losses,

low payrolls, miracle pennants,
fully understand

These men we watch
and worship.

These possessors
of our dreams.

 

“Rays Fans” can be found in Peter M. Gordon’s newest collection of poems Let’s Play Two: Poems About Baseball.

 

About the Poet:
Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and websites, including Slipstream, Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, and the Sandhill Review. He recently released a chapbook, “Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball.” His first collection, Two Car Garage, was published by CHB Media. Peter’s a freelance journalist and sportswriter whose work appeared in over one dozen books and publications ranging from The New York Daily News to the West Orange Times-Observer. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Let’s Play Two can be purchased at Amazon.

 

Photo by Kelsey Ann Vere.

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

 

Thanksgiving – A Poem by Peter M. Gordon

Thanksgiving

Even when we only worked part-time jobs
fixed the thermostat at zero
dried our wash on a line out the window

we still saved spare change for a turkey
scrounged potatoes and onion from Key Food
poured two buck chuck in jelly glasses

grasped each other
every night
under threadbare blankets and

tended fierce belief
like a hot fire
lighting our path
toward a radiant future.
About the Poet:

Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in several magazines, books and websites, including Slipstream, the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, the Provo Canyon Review, and of course, Poetry Breakfast.  He’s a founder and past President of Orlando Area Poets, the largest chapter of the Florida State Poetry Association. Peter taught poetry workshops at the Florida Writer’s Association Conference and to several other groups in Central Florida. His poetry collection, Two Car Garage, is available from all online book sellers. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program after spending 35 years in the entertainment industry, developing, producing, and curating content.

 

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Photo by Olichel Adamovich.

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: