Fred Marchant

Poet and translator, workshop teacher, and manuscript consultation

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On a Collage by Peter Sacks

the shape of a wraith made

                        from discards and swatches

fabrics cuttings pasted down

                        with starch and layered paint

but swept up by a whirling

                        gust and backed by paper

a random crumpled page

                        the typed words barely legible

but which as Corbett said

                        were what was under and

above and behind everything

                        we did a page that could be

almost any first draft a mistake

                        a wrong turn tossed out and

salvaged from the trash bin

                        given a role and new purpose

as the literal platform the stage

                        for this dance of what looks

like a kite of enormous wingspan

                        its reddish shape shifting

like a cloud on fire or fired

                        from within stoked by

spirits of the good offering

                        a glimpse of the would be

journey into the empyrean

                        and beneath it a long rope

hanging down a person at

                        the end holding on and letting

go a could-be anyone of us

                        caught in mid-flight uncertain

whether at this instant when

                        the arms and hands ache         

so much and feel so weak

                        that this is the moment when

you descend into your life

                        or have already left it behind

Fred Marchant's signature

in memoriam, William Corbett, 1942-2018

Salamander, 18-19

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Poems

Thoreau quote at Walden PondA Cairn by the Cabin
A Place at the Table, poem by Fred Marchant. Photo by Stefi RubinA Place at the Table
Bristlecone, poem by Fred MarchantBristlecone
library
Olive Harvest, poem by Fred MarchantOlive Harvest
On a Collage by Peter Sacks
St. John's Point, photo and poem by Fred MarchantSt. John’s Point
The Looking House, poem and photo by Fred MarchantThe Looking House Stanza
Migrants, poem and photo by Fred MarchantThe Migrants
The Peach, by Võ Quê
The Salt Stronger, poem and photo by Fred MarchantThe Salt Stronger
Fred Marchant, reading for Warrior WritersTipping Point

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