(Upper Burial Cairn)
by Rodger Martin
Like a navigator reckons safe passage
for a pilot flying chartless water,
a granite V points eastward
to Great Arthur and his Isles.
A fleet of Roman, Celtic, Bronze
and Neolithic memories float
above the channel: Scillonia,
Enor, Lyonesse, Camelot.
Perhaps the cleft is nature,
perhaps it’s man, knowing the only
place to die is home—even
after four thousand years. Beyond the tomb,
a child’s rope swings from a branch,
the irresistible desire for flight,
but like a father, a warm, western breeze
urges one return to earth,
enter the tomb quietly, touch the stone
understanding; the spirit
will find its way here and find it
unchanged.
Rodger Martin’s third poetry volume, The Battlefield Guide, (Hobblebush) uses locations on battlefields of the Civil War to reflect upon America today. Small Press Review selected The Blue Moon Series, (Hobblebush) as a bi-monthly pick of the year. He received an Appalachia poetry award, a New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Fiction Fellowship, and fellowships from The National Endowment for the Humanities. He has been translated in On the Monadnock: New Pastoral Poetry released in China, 2007. He serves as an editor in The Granite State Poetry Series.
Carl-Peter Mayer is a silk-screen artist and also enjoys stone balancing and photography. He has been involved in screen printing for over 40 years, from fine art to industrial applications. He resides in Franconia, New Hampshire, and Sharon, Massachusetts, and is a life-long Cannon/Mittersill skier. His parents emigrated from Germany and built a home in Franconia for its similarities to Franconia in their native Bavaria.
Smoky Quartz 