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“The Metaphor of Dancing” by Jim Lally

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comes to me on the cusp of spring
when peepers do a raucous prance,
their delicate rust and tiny throats
sending out an aural sex signal
that drives away tortoise-shell calico.

A friend stops to listen at the pond
and, in the din, describes the dance
lessons he’s taken up:
Waltz, Tango, the Schottische.
Every Thursday, he drives to town,
attending special classes for people
with two left feet. It seems the vow
he made a dozen years ago
to dance with his wife through
their shared life was more
than some imaginative metaphor,
for his wife is a writer
whose imagination has her
literally dancing through life.

My friend tells me that after
next week’s lesson, he’ll return
to teach me to dance with the peepers.

–Jim Lally,
Stick Tight Man
Accents Publishing

Jim LallyJim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of the stranglehold.

“A Hanging” by Jim Lally

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1)
My life, tied up
in the middle of house chores,
loses itself in hanging clothes
on the line between
the tulip poplar and red maple.
This is a job I make meticulous
with unnecessary arranging
and sorting by color and shape.
Suddenly, I sense someone
behind me.
“That’s alright,” she says,
“don’t stop hanging.”
I hear her camera clicking.
“I’m doing a photo essay
on bed linens and dish rags.
It’s one of the best-selling subjects
at my gallery.”
An artist, it seems, from Pasadena
has accidentally
made her way to my dead-end
road to ask for directions
to the covered bridge.

I keep on hanging
every item from my basket;
by then she’s discovered
the chickens – framing
the hens in the falling down
barn yard while trying to avoid
the roosters.

“I grew up on a farm,” she says,
“but where I live now,
there are laws against clothes lines
and domesticated fowl.”
“Wow!” is all I can say.
“You’re in the middle of nowhere,”
she says. “How did you find this place?”
“Every nowhere is somewhere,” I say
and notice her foot prints in places
she’ll later regret.
“I’ll send you some prints,”
she says, getting into her car.

2)
Four a.m.
summer solstice
the cat wants out
the rooster crows
and I suddenly remember
the clothes
hanging on the line
………….. a ghostly image
of flapping sheets
on someone’s upscale
California wall.

–Jim Lally,
Stick Tight Man
Accents Publishing

Jim LallyJim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of the stranglehold.

Jim Lally Featured Reading

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The first two poets Accents had the privilege of publishing were Jude and Jim Lally (The View from Down Here and Stick Tight Man, respectively).

The above video is Jim Lally’s reading at our premiere of these two books. The second half of the reading is below.

Jim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of the stranglehold.

“Too Late for the Dolly Llama” by Jim Lally

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Stick Tight Man

Raspberries on the lemon trees
fish popping out of the tomatoes
sheep that sing Hello Dolly

I might be me but
I could be part you

What’s the use
of keeping our genetics
in our jeans
when we can put a gorilla’s
head on a giraffe
just for laughs

Beam me up Scotty
break
down
my molecules
transport me to some
other pod
There’s no need for me
to clean up for reincarnation
when you can put my old brains
in a brand new bod

–Jim Lally,
Stick Tight Man
Accents Publishing

More from Stick Tight Man and Jim Lally:

Jim LallyJim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of the stranglehold.

“Vertical” by Jim Lally

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Stick Tight ManWe call
the high knob on our farm
“Nine-forty”
for it plots at that elevation
– a purely arbitrary measure
.   of some element of our being.
Three years ago
our horizon sprouted its first
cell tower.
It rose
across the road from the Indian
Burial Mound at Shannon Church
where white bones mix with red
just as its white lights turn red
at dusk.
We go to Nine-forty
to breathe
to feel the force of any breeze
to count the flashing
V
E
R
T
I
C
A
L
S
grown to ten
a nice round figure
the same as our fingers
the same as our toes
the sum of what we know.

–Jim Lally,
Stick Tight Man
Accents Publishing

More from Stick Tight Man and Jim Lally:

Jim LallyJim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of the stranglehold.