Joseph Salvatore Aversano


A FORESTER'S GUIDE TO AEGEAN TREES








1)


drop


of rain
ripple


rings
of the


tree

2)


crow's nest
up in the


crown of a
palm lined w/


rain or
shine till


a crow






3)


pine needled
the light holed
dark






4)


we make prints of the underbrush *
(of its twigs, needles, exoskeletons)


& end up w/ maps of our feet






5)


by way
of boughs


the old
plane tree


out &
about

6)


Along the same coast, set just above the sea, is Ortygia, a luxuriant grove with a great variety of trees, but mostly the cypress. And flowing through it is the River Cenchrus, where Leto is said to have bathed after her ordeal . . . And close by [is] the olive tree where the goddess is said to have first laid down to rest . . . .


— —Strabo 14.1.20






7)


thousand
year old


olive's
spring


shade






8)


Sabine's Pears**



that the penned outlines
hold so much of nothing in
it can only bulge as something
very much alive & w/ all
of the character of curves
dimpled in shadow & light
out of the nothing one
can swear was
never there

---

Notes:4) * after an image by Carolie Parker; 8) ** after a sketch by Sabine Miller




Joseph Salvatore Aversano walks about in the forests and orchards along the Turkish Aegean coast. His newer poems have been published in E-ratio, is/let, Modern Haiku, and otata. A generous sampling of his micro-poetry was recently published in A New Resonance 11 (Red Moon Press, 2019).
 
 
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