Afterglow

By Dan Phillips

In his book of poems, Afterglow, Dan Phillips combines energy, wit, enthusiasm, magnanimity, and an eye for detail, with "flashes of insight followed by an afterglow of wonder" that will make you sit up and take notice of your own life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667857077

Book preview

On Love

The Challenge

Abandoned on the open sea

by mutinous, savage instincts

or becalmed by daily doldrums

without provisions for our spirits,

we hunger to make landfall,

touch the shore of a body’s curve,

explore the contours of another’s mind,

penetrate the wilderness of passion

on our lifelong adventure

to be discovered, to be loved.

Love at First Sight

How else explain why

when we first met,

I spied myself reflected

in a beguiling, blue eye

at the other end of a

cardboard mailing tube,

as I swept the party crowd

in search of love?

How else explain why

after that first night

when you left for Mexico,

I for grad school in Berkeley,

two years later we would

meet again, share our first kiss,

and glimpse in each other’s eyes

our long life together?

Anahola Beach Lessons

From the large, yellow-spotted spider

swaying in his alani tree web

on the leeward side of our house

this windward side of the island,

how to hang out all day.

From the ocean, how to allow

rough waves to wash over us

but not let the moment

pass unnoticed.

From the dead crab’s carapace

that still scuttles across the sand

in the unceasing breeze,

how the past will

never again be made flesh.

From my wife of thirty-six years,

robe rippling as she lounges on the lanai,

how to smooth out convoluted memories

onto the pages of a journal without regret.

And finally, from rising at dawn

and walking the deserted beach,

how we can survive without each other.

Returning to Anahola

Beneath dark clouds,

we round the point

with no clear course to follow,

hoping for safe harbor.

There, under the thumb of the high pali,

behind the ironwood hedge,

its welcome mat