O:JA&L Poetry: All forms and styles
Frederick Pollack
West Sixties
In the penthouse lived a sculptor named Tony.
He was very engaging when not nervous.
The critics tended to absolve him
from the heaven- or soul-storming
requirements of then-regnant AbEx.
Only a few used words like “cute.”
It wasn’t they who made him nervous
but visits from his uncles,
who were unfortunately prominent in New Jersey.
He would then come down eight floors to see my father,
nervous. (Though he sold well,
it was unclear how Tony afforded the penthouse.)
“Tony, we’re all so proud of you.
Do you need anything? More bronze?
We can get you bronze … We saw that
review in the Herald Tribune, that was really
unfair, I could have a talk with her,
just say the word. But Tony,
never forget the family. Family is important.”
The piece my father left me, three inches high,
is of a figure like a monk
with a kindly concave face. He holds
in one hand a wide bowl
full of squiggles; in the other,
a chain. At the top of the chain
a tiny dragon hovers, showing its fangs.
The monk is trying to coax it down to eat.
About the writer:
Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems: The Adventure and Happiness (both Story Line Press; the former reissued 2022 by Red Hen Press), and four collections of shorter poems: A Poverty of Words, (Prolific Press, 2015), Landscape With Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), The Beautiful Losses (Better Than Starbucks Books, 2023), and The Liberator (Survision Books, 2024). Pollack has appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Magma (UK), Bateau, Fulcrum, Chiron Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, etc. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Hamilton Stone Review, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Mudlark, Rat’s Ass Review, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, among others.
Image: City by Alexey Akindinov (1977-). Oil on canvas. 78 x 78 cm. Between 2001 & 2002. By free license.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprint Buttonhook Press, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation supporting writers and artists worldwide.
Explore O:JA&L’s Buttonhook Press offerings on Amazon.
Subscribe to the O:JA&L YouTube channel.
Become an O:JA&L Member through Patreon.
Follow O:JA&L on Facebook.
Support Pamelyn Casto’s text for writers: Flash Fiction: Alive in the Flicker
Support O:JA&L’s free presses.
