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Noon Out of Nowhere: Complete Poems and Aphorisms
by Alan Harris
389 Poems, 511 pages
Price: Free
Publisher: Alan Harris
ISBN #: None since it’s a PDF online
Access Link: Go to https://alharris.com/poems/pdf/noon.pdf
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
Out of the gate, I want to share that Noon Out of Nowhere is a gift. Between the years 1963 and 2021, some 58 years, poet Alan Harris assembled a remarkable collection of poems and aphorisms. He offers them now as a free, downloadable pdf. All the content is alphabetically arranged for easy navigation throughout the work. From the Table of Contents, you can “click” on any title and be there in a “nano-second.” My enjoyable task is to offer hors d’oeuvres from Harris’s enticing menu.
Harris knows how to deliver lines much like an experienced actor adept at stealing a scene. After a recent stressful day, these aphorisms took the edge off:
13 Signs of Bad Luck
It is bad luck if:
1. A pit bull doesn't finish crossing your path.
2. Your psychiatrist falls asleep while you're talking.
3. You discover your broker has renounced monetary gain.
4. You receive a registered letter from your spouse.
5. Your dentist starts to plan a world tour.
6. Our President broadcasts a plea to remain calm.
7. Your doctor starts wanting you to pay ahead.
8. Your PC screeches when you turn it on.
9. Inside the company elevator you begin to float.
10. Your boss begins, "You've been a good employee. …"
11. Your flight attendant has strapped on a parachute.
12. The neighbor boy always talks about making fires.
13. Your surgeon has a Band-Aid on his finger.
I chose the following two poems as “lead” poems, because they display an uncommon life-wisdom characteristic of the whole.
“Absence” prefigures a final life-accounting. I relate because, like the author’s protagonist, I, too, am in my “white-haired” years. I had to read this one several times before the depth of its message settled upon me.
I always thought that you,
dear Friend, had been away
due to a long, far journey.
I thought I knew you well,
although I had no memory
of ever seeing you.
Stirring stories I heard
about your distant deeds,
and I felt a link with you
though never saw your face.
I ask you in my heart,
“How long, how far from here
has questing taken you?
Does destiny intend for me
again to hear your voice?”
My white-haired years
now tell me it is I
who traveled out upon
that long, far journey.
Soon I will be coming back
to share my life’s adventures
with you in a place not
far away nor danger-filled,
a place as near as breath and pulse.
I’ve missed your easy laugh
and kindly voice, dear Friend,
but soon enough we’ll meet again
to pray the prayers of ancient days.
“Abundance” is a feast of poetic devices which showcases the author's turn-of-phrase and command of craft:
Listen to abundance–
not only Niagara’s thunder
but two mosquitoes whining–
not only the whoosh of rest
but the whoops of errors
and the whew of success.
Abundance is my golly
and Betsy's heavens,
but also the sibilance
of a petunia’s petal
falling into grass.
Abundance roars out its yes
and whispers yet more yes–
the best, it is, of the most,
plus the all within the least.
There are dozens of haiku in Noon … the poet’s practical life-constructs caused me to pause, in the midst of my busy life, to gain fresh perspectives on how to live:
Arrangements
Dogs fuss with their beds–
people take out mortgages–
for a place to sleep.
As Below, So Above
Fragrance from flowers
already bloomed gives courage
to the budding ones.
Dream
The universe turns
over in its sleep and dreams
a trillion "big bangs."
From reading and reviewing countless poetry collections, I have learned to perceive certain underlying traits in the authors I review. Alan Harris is a poet whose work displays an enviable love for life and for people. “Analogies for Love” is a case in point:
Is love a light beam we shine
upon our chosen few of heart,
reflected by them upon us?
Or is love an inner sea
contained by, yet containing us,
in turbulence or pleasing calm?
Does a new mother perceive
in her baby's trusting breath
the force of a new volcano?
As a cup that cannot explain its tea
or a husk that fathoms not its corn,
I cradle love as an infinite infant within.
Harris lived in Earlville, Illinois, during his formative years. He never imagined there was anywhere else to live. His beloved town depended on the railroad for its economic survival. This excerpt from “Echoes from Earlville” is a poignant reminder that change is inevitable. I sense the poet’s pathos lifting from the page:
I remember winter nights in bed
when long steam-engine whistle toots
would bring about deep slumbering–
reliable as lullabies.
Soon progress dared to usher in
the brassy, strident dissonance
of diesel horns, "long-long-short-long,"
which set the window panes a-buzz.
The poem continues, displaying Earlville's delightful down-home charm, through eight stan-zas. That charm continues to decorate the poet's life to this day.
Alan Harris is impressive in his range of interests. In reading through the entire collection, I found the poet wise and winsome when opining on virtually any aspect of contemporary life.
This life acumen includes the arena of faith. “Poetic Commentaries on the Ten Command-ments” offers one poem for each charge contained in the Decalogue. I found Harris's faith-insights fascinating.
With nearly four hundred poems from which to choose, Noon Out of Nowhere is a poetry lover’s banquet, sumptuous from beginning to end.
Friendlight
A Good-Bye Poem
When certain folks
become good friends
a candle lights
and remains aglow
and when these folks
round separate bends
this light stays lit
and will always show.
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