St. Cloud State University

News Release

Pushcart nominee

Friday, November 6, 2009

Steve Klepetar, St. Cloud State University professor of English and faculty director of advising, has been nominated once again for the 2009 Pushcart Prize.

Steve Klepetar, St. Cloud State University professor of English and faculty director of advising, has been nominated once again for the 2009 Pushcart Prize. His poems “The Hand” and “Another Song” earned him a fifth nomination for the award.

The Pushcart Prize – Best of the small presses series has been published annually since 1976 and compiles a variety of works from genres including poetry, short fiction and essays. It is considered to be one of the most honored literary projects in America and has represented the work of hundreds of writers since its creation. Each edition can be readily found in most libraries and bookstores. Recipients are nominated by magazine and book press editors.

The Hand

with its myriad

bones, the scalpel and the pen.

Each nail, each wrinkle on the knuckled

skin.

Every home

swung onto trees. These are the blind

days of spring, the broken days of leafy

mud and rag.

I am searching for your lips

and the secret tongue

you hide in the pockets of moon.

I have followed you home to a door in this wall.

 In an instant you are

gone, sunlight on glossy leaves and then

silence. 

Squirrels wrestle in their heavy nests, sky stretches and yawns

and again the earth fools us, somersaulting

out where brushes swish in silent caverns of dream.

Another Song

What strange beast

bearing marks of fire

and rain, slinks

from the wood to eat

shadows from my salty hand? 

Moonlight silvers

the trees, nothing

stirs. 

Who has sent

a message leaping

from its blazing

tongue?  Silence

laps at our ears.

When tides plague this

suffering shore, who will sing

the broken choirs of night? 

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