Not Silenced, But Needing

The muscles in my forehead tighten hard,
touched by this cold air cradling her voice;
her shadowed words, my steps around the yard,
trace the halo binding the moon: one last choice
before I go, carried by a winter wind
to where its consequence will be refused
and then regretted. He wants me to rescind
my leaving, but some things cannot be excused,
and now that she has called, my way is clear.
Follow the white dogs limping through the mist.
You have no self to lose. The clock’s hands spear
each flake tumbling from the sky’s clenched fist.
Pages turn. I’m more than halfway through.
Her face at last is mine. You see? It’s true.  

Richard Jeffrey Newman is the author of The Silence Of Men (CavanKerry Press, 2006), and Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan and Selections from Saadi’s Bustan (Global Scholarly Publications, 2004 & 2006 respectively), translations of two masterpieces of 13th century Iranian poetry. He co-translated with John Moyne the poetry in A Bird in the Garden of Angels (Mazda Publishers, 2008), a selection of work by Rumi, also from 13th century Iran. Newman’s poems and essays have appeared in Salon.com, The American Voice, Circumference, Prairie Schooner, Another Chicago Magazine, and other journals. He is a former Literary Arts Director of Persian Arts Festival, and sits on the advisory boards of The Translation Project and Jackson Heights Poetry Festival. He is Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, where he coordinates the Creative Writing Project.