Five New Poems by Tom Montag

 

from

"The Old Monk Poems"

 

The best teachers

are slow learners,

the old monk says.

 

 from

"The Old Monk Poems"

 

The old monk said:

I've played my zither

 

so long now it

plays itself. That is

 

an old man's blessing.

 

 

from

"The Old Monk Poems"

 

Sometimes the mule

gives you the horse it is,

the old monk says.

 

Sometimes it gives you

the jackass. You have to

know which is which.

 

 

from

"The Old Monk Poems"

 

The old monk says

the wind

 

does its business

the same as we do,

 

not knowing.

 

from

"The Old Monk Poems"

 

When the wind

blows through

 

on the way to

Tuesday,

 

the old monk says,

I make another

 

cup of tea.

 

Tom Montag's books of poetry include: Making Hay & Other Poems; Middle Ground; The Big Book of Ben Zen; In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013; This Wrecked World; The Miles No One Wants; Imagination's Place; Love Poems; and Seventy at Seventy. His poem 'Lecturing My Daughter in Her First Fall Rain' has been permanently incorporated into the design of the Milwaukee Convention Center. He blogs at The Middlewesterner. With David Graham he recently co-edited Local News: Poetry About Small Towns.

The poems are selections from my on-going series "The Old Monk Poems." None of these poems has been previously published and they are not being considered elsewhere.

 

Please note that all of the poems are untitled.