Jim Culleny is the Poetry Editor of 3 Quarks Daily. After a stint in the navy, Jim received a BA in Art Education from William Paterson University and did graduate work in art at NYU. He taught art for several years in NJ public schools in Newark and Bergen County. Taught a little bit of everything else during two years at a remote residential community school in New York’s Adirondacks. Was a social worker in Lower Manhattan before Soho was Soho. Made a living most of his life as a carpenter, designer, and builder. Did regular radio commentary for about 10 years during Morning Edition on WFCR.FM in Amherst, Mass. and some for NPR on All Things Considered. Played and sang his way from rockabilly to jazz in numberless band permutations over a period too long to believe. Came to poetry through songwriting. Has had work published in The Third Muse Poetry Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, Penthouse Journal, and in 5-Minute Pieces, a chapbook published in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. He’s also been writing a regular op-ed column for the past 12 years for the Greenfield Recorder along the beautiful Connecticut River, and is presently making a living as project manager for an Architectural firm. Jim lives with his wife, Pat, of 31 years, and his 17 year old granddaughter. He has three daughters and four other grandchildren. Email: jimculleny [at] comcast.net
“But in 2500 B.C. Harappa, who cast in bronze a servant girl? No one keeps records of soldiers and slaves.” … —from At the Museum, by Agha Shahid Ali In Jerusalem I’ve learned a new word: asafoetida, or asafetida, which is a gum ground from Near Eastern plants of the genus Ferula which smells fetid …. and was used once…
Especially Where You’re Concerned —on a thought of Maurice Sendak I’ll sob my way to the grave as the world disappears one friend at a time, but especially where you’re concerned, the old man said. So, there is a bit of joy in the thought of leaving first since I won’t have to sob until…
….—on a cartoon by Harry Bliss ..Yes, But . . . … It’s … a mixed bag ….a contentious thought ….a hard truth ….a contradiction of emotions ….a matter of time ….a bittersweet line ….a fickle notion ….a double standard ….a salve ….a remedial lotion ….a half-truth ….a deep and restless ocean Jim Culleny, 2/25/23…
Fugitive big brown bison walks the white line of a two-lane, black eyes scanning for a sign, regarding asphalt he wonders what happened to the grass how did this black ribbon come to bisect my meadow between talus and hundred-foot pines and where are the columbine? he asks no one in particular because not even the alpha male…
Now Only Knocks Now Add 30 seconds to anytime, what’s that interval? Hell, double it what’s that? Have you ever had a day that lasts three or one that goes so fast it’s past instantly? Are those durations short or long, if hours mean anything? Subtract five hours from anytime do we really think we’ve…
My Boat and I My boat’s sail is the puffed dust of crescent moon rigged on its mast at almost-opposite of noon My boat & I once were moving slow, but now we’re moving fast. My boat & I are cruising into future from that which doesn’t last, tacking through present redolent of night and…
Conversation . . .—on a painting by Jack Braudis . . . . . . Boat: . . .Your slope is russet and graceful; seems soft. Land: . . .It is. I see it echoes the grace of your gunnels, stem to stern. Boat:. . . . . .We approach your still grace, having…
The Hindu image of Anantashayana portrays the god Vishnu reclining upon a coiled snake upon a raft floating in a sea of milk dreaming up the universe Until the Sacred Cows Come Home Vishnu reclines and sleeps dreaming up the world ………………………….. He lounges upon a coiled snake in the image of ananta shayana floating on…
‘Scuze Me for Being Cynical Media (movies, news, tv), does not mediate, and often obfuscates, it dilates, though some do legitimately investigate, producing news upon which we are left to ruminate, and so, the public often oscillates and vacillates —but sly and foxy news, well, just prevaricates, creates fantasies that stuff its banks, which some…
Poets Talk Time poets talk time to get a handle on it, to hack a place to hold it to turn it, to fold it to climb it and mount it to ride it, to flip it to hide it, to turn it to toy with and tip it to wrench it, to rip it apart…
I learn to reap without violence listen without taking; I yield —Lauren Turner, Poet Learning How to Write a Poem A time ago I thought, and something said, Get out of the way, Jim you’re occluding the sun you make a mess of things with your insistence how do you expect a poem to come? how…
If you talk about it, it’s not Tao If you name it, it’s something else ……………. —Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu’s Lament At first I think, I’ve got it! then I think, oh no, that’s not it, I think, it’s more like a flaming arrow shot into the marrow of the bony part…
“Shu” is the single teaching of Confucius and “jen” it’s counterpart. Shu means reciprocity; jen is love, kindness and goodness. T’ien is heaven. –Confucius and the Teaching of Goodness Shu and Jen Goodness came as two hearts and sat beside me. “My name is Shu,” they said. At that moment two birds flew through…
Slogging slogging along he was partially absent as usual he was just watching the river flow he was, but then got a shutter-snap glimpse of the real of its flow and went ……………… still he stopped not at inch from its brink looking, but not just looking, no, deeper than looking, seeing seeing the river…
In Books when words make love sentences are born the world’s heft is altered by the weight of nouns; a pause of hyphens and commas, like the space between breaths tells the rhythm of what’s new and what’s been; dead stops of periods spell the end of what a breath holds; adjectives, like the blood…
Narragansett Evening Walk to Base Library Two young men greeted a new crew member on a ship’s quarterdeck 60 years ago and, in a matter of weeks, by simple challenge, introduced this then 18 year-old who’d never really read a book through to the lives that can be found in them. —Thank you Anthony Gaeta and…
Given current conditions on Terra Firma, just needed some space— Fun in Space Call me nomad. Rootlessness is my routine. From where I stand space begs for exploration, not occupation —occupation of space requires a military state of mind, armies train for it, but individuals grow dull and lethargic just occupying space. There’s no substitute…
What Are You Best At? “So, after all these millennia, what are you best at, my man? What rocks your boat, what stokes your passion, what makes your day?” God asks His creature His creature replies, “What I love most is conflict. It’s what I do most reflexively (not counting ruts of lust), and in…
Talking with my Guru ….. — Nothing and Emptiness Me: What is emptiness? G: What do you mean by emptiness? Me: I mean nothing. G: Then why are we discussing it? …. Take your tiny Tao shears …. and snip emptiness out of Webster’s …. and heave it into the void. It’s another …. self-serving tool like time …. and collateral damage…
“lacrimae rerum, “ (the tears of things) …………………………………. —Virgil Everything Cries steel’s tears are rust, trees weep tears of falling leaves, clouds weep and mourn their loss sacrificing their billows to the earth as rain, the earth weeps its carbon into sky, the sun weeps its energy into earth and will die someday of the…