D.A. Powell: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Project Apollo

 

I was the poolboy but it was billiards

I got up on the table with a feather duster 

and did a little dance like the honeybee

to get the green felt felt green again 

I felt it in my stinger. I felt it in my pockets 

the god of light shined his light on me

and all around. and later it was his scope 

because also the god of medicine also

the god who killed every boy he loved

which may have only been one. one good one.

then I appeared in ads for pools or ads 

for poolboys. I appeared in a theater

near you like The Hustler, a movie about

a fast boy who plays pool. Paul Newman 

played Fast Eddie Felson and appeared 

in a theater near me and also wet

daydreams. I used to splash myself 

with his dressing. undressing on the billiard 

table and later by the pool of a poodle 

groomer who tried to coif me he

never came up for air, he also scratched 

also the god of archery of games of hawks

of the discus and of the stray. the ricochet

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D. A. Powell's most recent collections are Atlas T (Rescue Press, 2020) and Low Hanging Fruit (Foundlings Press, 2022). He teaches at the University of San Francisco.

[Photo of D.A. Powell by Ben Decastro. “Project Apollo” appears in The Paris Review #251. See https://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/8379/project-apollo-d-a-powell]

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Apollo Dancing with the Nine Muses. After Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536), gilt and tempera on board. Italian, second half of 19th century. 

Comments

[Clarinda]

Sh yes the tidy little triangle of balls, then the scatter….

[lally]

brilliant poem

[Grace Cavalieri]

Painfully excellent

[Geoffrey Himes]

Like the broken syntax, the broken narrative, the unbroken narrator.

[Don Berger]

What breathtaking movement here! I love the help of the repeated "also" in taking us to a number of places all at once. This poem is dizzying, original, worth reading many but many times, which I'll do, wondering how D.A. Powell has pulled it off. "The god of light" has certainly blessed him! Terence, great pick--way to go! D.A., you've helped launch my Sunday morning with this great song.

[Terence Winch]

Don: thanks for the comment, my friend.

[Jeff Wright]

“Light” verse!! Made heavy by desire and time’s shorthand.

[Troy Jollimore]

Ah, that's a good one -- lots going on there, and so much energy. Looking forward to reading it again & carrying it around with me. I felt that one in my stinger!

[Peter Bushyeager]

A lot going on here …. and it’s always good. Really like the jumpcuts, the speed, the breathlessness. Bravo!