Mark J. Mitchell

Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up in southern California. His latest poetry collection, Roshi San Francisco, was just published by Norfolk Publishing. Starting from Tu Fu was recently published by Encircle Publications. A new collection and a novel are forthcoming. He is very fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Miles Davis, Kafka and Dante. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the activist and documentarian, Joan Juster where he made his marginal living pointing out pretty things. Now, he works doing guy stuff, go figure.He has published 2 novels and three chapbooks and two full-length collections so far. His first chapbook won the Negative Capability Award. Titles on request. A meager online presence can be found at https://www.facebook.com/MarkJMitchellwriter/ A primitive website now exists: https://www.mark-j-mitchell.square.site/

LUNAR CALENDAR

No moon hides
behind lowering clouds.

Dark prayers
get offered for white light.

Just a sliver, a shard
broken off some white teapot.

Sunrise will come.
It was promised.

OPUS 57

The wrong long end of a Friday.
Classical station playing all day.

You ache. You sag. You thirst.
You’re ready to slam the glass door.

Then the “Appassionata“ begins to play,
carrying you back to twenty-three.

Not quite a minor, but not a man.
You’re stuck. You can’t leave until the piano

pierces you, sharp and tender
as a blade of grass.