I swallowed the sun: Poems by Benjamin Laur

By Benjamin Laur

"I swallowed the sun," Benjamin's first published collection of poems, is an amalgamation of myths, meter, and Michigan forests, reflecting on childhood, fatherhood, loss, love, politics, and every day life in Middle America. Benjamin briefly studied creative writing at Central Michigan University, and has been published in Allegory Ridge. In his other lives he is a classical singer and voice teacher, and he aspires to write speculative fiction. From "I swallowed the sun:" "The Poem" I was angry once. I turned my Anger into fire and it became The sun. I swallowed the Sun and it became sadness. I Vomited the sadness and it Became music. I made love with The music and it became a poem. "The Trumpet and The Knife" Oh, the trumpet shall sound, dear, And the dead be pearly white, And a jack knife incorruptible Shall be way out of sight. When that change bites with its teeth, dear, Scarlet trumpets begin to sound, And the dead shall be raised, dear-- A cement body dropping down. On the sidewalk, Sunday trumpet, You can bet that bag is dead. Someone's sneaking, incorruptible, And we shall be red. "Echo" I remember voices in the dawn and Clinging to the lawn to climb it, pine cones Popping, sticking to the walls. Before the Singing there were noises. They are gone. And In their place, the ringing of a million Billion suns, their cobwebs flung across the Sea of time, declares the flame of memory Dim before itself. To be alive has Always been to capture light and sound and Sweat as in a fishing net; to see the Echoes of the distant quasars shooting Through our history and document them. Now the spinning wheels of astral arms have Held us close to suckle, and the heaving Breast of time descends to fill our hearts. In Youth we once believed in love and art. From Childhood dreams we see our futures written, Scrawled across the sky in stardust, song, and Blood. But we are not the bodies that we Once discovered in the mud, and we are Not the dreamers or the singers or the Stars. We are the echo of a precious Piece of memory, shooting, ringing: not the Bodies; not the voices; but the art.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1980921970
• ISBN13: 9781980921974
• Release Date: May 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.4" x 5.0"