Jan 17 2016

Hugh Behm-Steinberg-Poet Republik

Orange-crowned Fairywrens

The men bring petals to their lovers while staying loyal to their wives; here come
our flames, they’ll teach us latticework,
uneven brokenness.

Which is labor, a job we quit long ago. There’s only two virtues worth cultivating:
magnificence and grace.

Or we worked super hard on our symmetry, our dark brown eyes, unique among
fairywrens for looking alike,
men and women so exactly fireworked.

We warn all the other birds, everyone understands our songs. My wife tells me I shall not respect frames,
she sings frames are extra stupid.

Then be in the torsion of montane forests, utopias or carnivals you find ways to come home.
All those there’s are here’s.

hugh2

Hugh Behm–Steinberg’s books include The Opposite of Work (JackLeg Press) and Shy Green Fields (No Tell Books) as well as several chapbooks including Sorcery (Dusie Chapbook Kollektiv) and Good Morning! (Deconstructed Artichoke Press). His most recent chapbook is The Sound of Music (Dusie Chapbook Kollektiv).
He is the author of two libretti: Terrible Things Will Happen But It’s Going to Be Okay: A Donner Party Opera with composer Guillermo Galindo, and a children’s opera based on the Chinese folktale, The Clever Wife, which was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera for their Opera to Go series.
Behm–Steinberg collaborates on text/sound art projects with Matt Davignon under the bandname Oa. Their first album, Oa, was released on Edgetone Records in February 2015. He is currently collaborating with his wife on an illuminated manuscript reworking of Farid ud-Din Attar’s 12th Century Sufi masterpiece The Conference of the Birds.
In 2015 his short story Taylor Swift won the Barthelme Prize for short fiction. He is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow in creative writing at Stanford University and the recipient of an NEA fellowship.

He is a member of the Unranked Faculty Collective Bargaining Team at California College of the Arts, where he edits the journal Eleven Eleven.

Comments

23 Responses to Hugh Behm-Steinberg-Poet Republik
  1. Erik Palomares says:

    Water flows at peace
    What a magnificent lake
    Beyond the mountains

  2. Maria Medrano says:

    Blue Bird on a tree.
    Picking berries from the tree.
    Now flying away.

  3. Michael Mendoza says:

    The Bird Sings Loudly
    Outside Where The Blue Sky Is
    To Become Free

  4. Raya says:

    Dark as Night, chilling
    You never want to be Left
    Crows have you in sight

  5. Michael Sanchez says:

    Bird sits on a tree
    It wants to take a short nap
    Wakes and flies away

  6. Maria Tena says:

    Open your wings bird
    Feel the coolness hit
    water for your precious need

  7. Maria Tena says:

    water hits first
    feel the cool and breeze
    Bird be you be free

  8. Katelyn Lightner says:

    Raven needs no champion
    Whisper to fallen souls
    As black as midnight

  9. Maria Tena says:

    freshness of water
    feel the cool feel the breeze hit
    Bird be you be free

  10. Priscilla Rodriguez says:

    Pretty Bird

    They call me pretty bird but,
    I fly higher than the others
    So it seems they only see my colors

    Call me what you will
    But know that I refuse
    To listen to you fools
    Be selfishly amused

    I am much more than a pretty bird
    Because I can fly high
    I am much more than what meets the eye

  11. Carly says:

    Wings are optional
    But flight is almost certain
    A blind leap of faith

  12. Samantha Valle says:

    How busy you are
    Buzzing here, there, everywhere
    Good bye Hummingbird

  13. Ace Manzano says:

    Fragile it may seem

    Naughty tails may paralyze

    One little giant

  14. Nanci says:

    Family of three
    Until one can leave the nest
    And his own begin

  15. seung cho says:

    I wrote this for a bald eagle.

    “A predator hunts

    From high above looking down

    Prayer for the prey”

  16. Christopher Ramirez says:

    Waterfall flows so free

    Light glistens the blue water softly

    Life takes a screeching hault

  17. Nicholas Ruiz says:

    Picture of a Tree; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree#/media/File:Ash_Tree_-_geograph.org.uk_-_590710.jpg

    Standing In The Sun

    Its Presence Always Remain

    In The Winter Sun

  18. Jesus Loaiza says:

    From afar it sees
    Fiercely catches it’s weak prey
    Feeds for another day

  19. Buddy McPherson says:

    Birds are beautiful.
    The way that they fly so high.
    I just want to fly.

  20. Maritza Gutierrez says:

    Enchanting pathway
    Leading to a peaceful feel
    Fresh lavender plants

  21. Leticia Ramirez says:

    Orange flowers all around

    As the sun shines bright

    Lovely and delicate of them all

  22. Jovana Acevedo says:

    Bird fly freely now
    feeling the wind in the sky
    with feathers so light

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *