REMEMBERING AMERICAN POET RALPH ANGEL (1951-2020) : A Ralph Poem from the Upcoming LA Special Issue of Pratik

 

RALPH ANGEL

Untitled (A flurry of snow)

 

A flurry of snow

 

Three birds

in a row

 

The kind of light you could

paint to

 

 

I learned to stand on a wall of water

and to fall

 

down the bougainvilla

 

The night always

still

 

the moon beneath the wind

 

 

My body

demands of your echo

 

my body

My body sinks like a butterfly

 

like a handful of lamplight

and crickets

 

 

Yip yip coyote

 

The echo born in my heart

upon your mirror

 

reflected

 

A renowned  American poet, teacher, mentor Ralph Angel passed away in March, 2020. His latest poetry collection, Your Moon, was awarded the Green Rose Poetry Prize, and is available from New Issues Press. And entropia, thirty-one images, is just out from the fine art photography publisher, Dark Spring Press. Strays, a limited-edition chapbook of poems, is just out, too.  During his prestigious career, Ralph  received countless awards, including a PEN USA Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship. He was the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands for 39 years, and a member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is survived by his wife Mary Angel.