The Jasper Project is a group of highly-talented artists and friends of the arts in and around Columbia, SC: actually the entire Palmetto State. After a few years of submitting, I had success in 2021 and this year.
My first two poetry books were reviewed in Jasper Magazine, and I appreciate the thoroughness and insights. Over the past seven years, I have gotten to know many people, and some have been supporters of what I do and inspire me as well.
Here is the poem, based on a childhood memory of actually seeing Sputnik in our backyard in Carroll Township, Washington County, PA- south of Pittsburgh.
Above the Poplars
Above the poplars, a shiny moving
silver speck worried three generations
of my family after dinner. Sputnik
thumbed its Soviet nose at America.
Recent memories shared of brutal
crackdowns after last year’s
Hungarian Revolution, sending
relatives to Canada or the grave.
Next
year the sons of bitches will
shoot
missiles at us one of my aunts
announced. America held its own;
Gorbachev laid down the sword.
But now the plots of the espionage
novels I reviewed have come true.
Every news cycle, every headline
reminds me of the sputnik over the poplars.
Arthur Turfa © 2018, In Fall Lines, v. IX, Jasper Project,
By the way, I am curious how many actual clicks this post will receive. I wonder if blogs are worthwhile these days. Feel free to comment! Thanks!
