Abandoned Poems
forthcoming from Seven Stories Press, distributed by Random House
Satyr Song
WHEN I was a child, I moved my pillow to a different part of the bed each night because I liked the feeling of not knowing where I was when I woke up. From the beginning I yearned for the nomadic life. I wandered, grazed like a goat on a hill—the move from grazing to exploring was just a leap over a fence. In my seventh year, I had a revelation. A teacher asked me a question. I knew the answer. Miss Green, a horse-faced redhead, asked the 3A class of P.S. 99, Kew Gardens, Queens, a long way from Byzantium: “What are you going to do in life?” Most of the answers remain a blur, but someone said she was going to be a novelist and someone said he’d write a play, or for the movies. I remember waiting; I was last to answer: “I am certain I am a poet.” Then Miss Green said, “I knew it. You, Stanley, are a bronze satyr,” and she whacked my erect penis with a twelve-inch Board of Education wooden ruler.
I ran home in a fury at my parents. They had never told me I was a satyr. My mother’s explanation: . . . Continue Reading Here:
UBUNTU (2017) for Bass Voice, Djembe, and Piano Music by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Poem by Stanley Moss Mark Risinger, bass Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, djembe Richard Wilson, piano Purchase sheet music at https://www.presser.com/141-40098 Recorded and filmed at the American Academy of Arts and Letters Music recorded and mixed by Leszek Wojcik Video by Shao-Ting Sun