Posted in Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged Jessica Molaskey on Blogfinger, Poem by Charles Pierre on March 23, 2026| 3 Comments »
Under the Coney Island boardwalk. c. 1959. By Bruce Davidson ©
BOARDWALK
By Charles Pierre.
This splintered swath
with its burning masses,
where nothing can grow,
hides a cool path
of sand and grasses
directly below,
a place of laughs
and eager kisses
only the teens know.
From the author’s 2014 collection Coastal Moments, Hayland Press, New York.
k.d. lang
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Photograph by Bob Bowné, Photographic Gallery: Ocean Grove, Photographs presented on Blogfinger, Photography at The Jersey Shore, Photography by Bob Bowne, Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged A poem by Charles Pierre on Blogfinger, Dawn by Charles Pierre on October 9, 2025|
Beachfront Sunrise. By Paul Goldfinger. Ocean Grove. Blogfinger.net ©
Hi Paul:
Greetings from Manhattan. I was struck by your quietly beautiful photo, “Beachfront Sunrise,” (posted recently on Blogfinger), and your statement that you preferred sunrises to sunsets because “beginnings are happier than endings.”
Here is the poem, “Dawn,” from my 2008 collection, Father of Water.
Best wishes,
Charles Pierre
Dawn
By Charles Pierre
The first hint of morning on the ocean
is a trembling of shadows,
a dark hovering of muted tones
that moves with imperceptible pace,
a vanishing medium through which
the day brightens and widens,
the new light going on for miles and miles
in the shine of emerging surf.
BILL FRISELL. “Across the Universe.”
Posted in Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged A poem by Charles Pierre on Blogfinger, Bill Frisell plays "Across the Universe.", Poetry on Blogfinger, Tuning Forks by Charles Pierre on May 26, 2025| 1 Comment »
Charles Pierre. 2009. By Marcella Kerr.
Hi Paul,
Greetings from Manhattan. At this time of year, as temperatures warm along the coast, one can see sailboats being moved from winter storage on land to their berths at marinas. And as the wind picks up, one can hear their rigging striking the masts. Here is the poem “Tuning Forks,” from my 2008 collection, Father of Water.
Best wishes,
Charles Pierre
St. Thomas, USVI. Paul Goldfinger photo. Click once to enlarge.
Tuning Forks
By Charles Pierre:
It is past midnight, and the sailboats
float side by side at a sheltered marina,
in stillness so complete that not even
a lapping against the hulls can be heard.
Yet high above the water, at the tops
of the mastheads, the rigging of each craft
starts to ring aloud in a rising wind,
the ropes and cables striking the masts,
sounding possible routes to new lands.
The musical tones, in random clusters,
sailing out from the crowded harbor
toward an uncharted ocean of dark.
JESSICA MOLASKEY with Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer.” From Jessica’s album Pentimento
Posted in Guest photographer, Music from the movies, Poems by Charles Pierre, tagged Andre Kertesz photographer, Snowy New York poem by Charles Pierre. on February 13, 2025| 2 Comments »
Hi Paul:
Greetings from Manhattan and Happy New Year. We’re having our first snowfall of the year, and it comes as a welcome relief after the hectic rush of the holidays. There is nothing that so quickly changes the tenor of life in the city as a covering of the white stuff. Here is “Manhattan Snow” from my 2008 poetry collection, Father of Water.
Best wishes,
Charles Pierre,
January 6, 2015.
André Kertész, NYC, 1954. Washington Square Park.©
Manhattan Snow
By Charles Pierre:
The hard edges of the city are softened now.
Buildings shimmer in speckled mist, streets
lie buried and still, and the crackle of talk
at each corner is silenced from river to river.
Tonight, no human walks, no vehicle moves,
no noise vibrates across the white landscape.
From our window, an arabesque of lampposts
lends an elegance to the empty, unshovelled
steps and pathways below: a gentle curve
of pendant lights encircles the frosted trunks
and limbs of trees, the drifted-over benches
and trash cans, and the silver tips of bushes.
The island this moment has a numinous shine,
and in the quiet ease of evening, we can hear
our own muffled breathing, the only sound
in the air, as edgeless as snow, hovering above
yet deepening the softness of this winter scene.
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD “Snowstorm” from the film Snow Falling on Cedars.
Posted in Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery France, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photography Gallery France, Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged A poem by Charles Pierre on Blogfinger on January 2, 2025| 3 Comments »
Hi Paul:
Greetings from Manhattan. Over fifty years ago, my grandmother said a few things to me shortly before she died that I knew would eventually find their way into a poem. Here is “Grandmother’s Note” from my 2008 collection, Father of Water.
Best wishes,
Charles Pierre
Paris. By Paul Goldfinger © Click to enlarge.
Grandmother’s Note
By Charles Pierre
Looking for less with each added year,
I’ve begun to live in the small space
that surrounds me now, in the shadows
that gather at my feet and follow
as I walk along, and in the breezes
that take my shape for an instant,
leaving nothing but gentle creases
in my hair and a cool ripple
over my skin. Expecting little,
I go where my handwriting leads me –
become just a sound, a word, a phrase,
part of the impression on the page
for a moment, not an old woman
with the obvious lines of age, but
a clear thought in this surrounding space
CAL TJADER: “The Night We Called it a Day”
Charles Pierre. Photograph by Marcella Kerr. ©
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Charles Pierre poetry on Blogfinger, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photography nocturnal NYC, Photography: New York City Street Series, Photos: New York City street series, Poems by Charles Pierre, tagged Charles Pierre poem on Blogfinger on August 11, 2024|
Upper East Side, New York City. August. 2014. Photo by Paul Goldfinger. Blogfinger.net. Click to enlarge
A Couple
By Charles Pierre
That man and woman walking side by side
almost glide together through the evening,
parting the oncoming crowd with a singleness
of rhythm that erases the differences in height
and stride. Palm to palm, with fingers entwined
and arms swinging between them, they keep
their shoulders straight and eyes fixed forward,
talking without turning aside, letting the words
swirl around them in a cloak of conversation.
His left to her right, they reflect one another,
both wanting an equal partner but remaining
self-possessed, the emptiness of darkest space
less a threat than if each were facing it alone,
though their need for connection goes mostly
unconfessed: a solitary pair accustomed
to the same pace, limbs moving in unison
through the rush of wind leading night’s advance.
Frank Vignola plays Gershwin. “Our Love is Here to Stay.”
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Poems by Charles Pierre, tagged Charles Pierre poet on July 13, 2024| 3 Comments »
Hi Paul:
Greetings from Manhattan. There is a common aid to navigation — often used in coastal waters — that has always had a special meaning for me as a poet. Here is “The Bell Buoy,” a poem from my 2008 collection, Father of Water.
Best wishes,
Charles Pierre
“Shivering Sand.” Photogravure by Wylie. Undated. Click once to see the bell buoy more clearly. Reposted this poem from 2015 Blogfinger.net. ©
BELL BUOY
By Charles Pierre.
There is something singular in the rhythms
of the bell buoy, as it rings in the wake
of an unknown vessel already passing
on to its destination. The restless gestures
of this solitaire, anchored in the routine
of the sea, are a directing presence,
even in this hostile chopping,
metal on metal clanging from its heart,
clanging down the chain to the muddy anchor,
clanging out above the waves, creating
a point in the pointless sea, echoing out
to another, its clanging a song
of hope through these splintered waters,
a hard human song in an inhuman place,
something with a ringing truth to it
of who we are, something to sustain us,
wherever this imagined drifting leads.
Sounds: bell buoy ringing; waves hitting boat:
Music on the water, from the film The Sand Pebbles (1966) with Steve McQueen.:
MATT MONROE
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged A poem by Charles Pierre on Blogfinger, Bob Bowne´photography, Sculpture by Charles Pierre on November 26, 2023|
Bob Bowné. Winter Ocean Grove. 2015. ©
SCULPTURE
By Charles Pierre
In winter, my tongue
and teeth chinker
through cracked lips,
each poem a carving
of white breath
without marble’s heft—-
the chiseled lines
dying to silence,
shrouded in mist.
HOLLY CONLAN “Winter”
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Photography: Ocean Grove Gallery, Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger on September 25, 2022|
Late November garden in Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photograph. ©
Reprieve
By Charles Pierre
From a rusted nail
on the south wall
of an old boathouse
weathered to gray,
a small pail of
red impatiens
swings in the mild
November sun,
where the rush
of stark sea wind
has yet to dim
the arc of lush color.
EVA CASSIDY
From her album Songbird.
Posted in Poems by Charles Pierre, tagged Poem after the Blizzard on March 9, 2022| 2 Comments »
1954 by André Kertesz. Greenwich Village from his apartment window.
By Charles Pierre:
Speck
When the blizzard passed,
a holly amid ocean dunes
shook in the March wind,
as mounds of snow
slid from its peak
in a silent rush,
exposing a branch
where one red berry,
shriveled and pitted
in spots, yet whole,
clings to its stem —
the only speck of color
on this stark white shore,
edged with ashen surf.
RENEE OLSTEAD:
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger on April 23, 2021|
Ocean Grove. Sept. 2010. Two years prior to Sandy. Paul Goldfinger photo
Absence
A poem by Charles Pierre
Of what was written down
or spoken aloud onshore,
eye and ear find scant remains
A few letters in the sand
or murmurs on the salt wind
show, not who was here,
but how the sea
swallows up
most human traces.
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA "Enigma Variations."
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged Charles Pierre poem on Blogfinger, Early spring in Monmouth County on April 21, 2021| 1 Comment »
Best Wishes,
Charles Pierre
Early spring morning. Deal Lake. Ocean Township. March 29, 2015, By Paul Goldfinger © Click to enlarge.
Orient Point
Posted in Poems by Charles Pierre, Poetry on Blogfinger, tagged "The devouring mouth of December" by Charles Pierre, Poem by Charles Pierre, Toward winter in Ocean Grove on November 24, 2020|
Ocean Grove. November 28, 2014. Paul Goldfinger photo. ©
Toward Winter
By Charles Pierre.
In late November, after the abundance
of summer and early fall, when withered
vines and leaves deepen the solitude
of the land, one can walk almost unseen,
like the wind coursing through bare trees
or a dust mote crossing a shaft of sunlight.
In this diminished scene, the emptiness
can unburden, almost free, the self,
until one becomes aware of the season
but not the date, on an hourless afternoon,
neither mild nor cold, the slight stiffness
in the joints a certain sign of the short
clipped days and long crystalline nights
to come, as one walks the hardening earth,
with a hunger for less and less of the year,
into the devouring mouth of December.
BEVERLY KENNEY from Sings For Johnny Smith