Thursday, April 27, 2023: L. Ward. Abel's poem "Cartographer"

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 L. Ward Abel’s work has appeared in hundreds of journals (Rattle, Versal, The Reader, Worcester Review, Main Street Rag, others), including a recent nomination for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and he is the author of three full collections and ten chapbooks of poetry, including his latest collection, The Width of Here (Silver Bow, 2021).  He is a reformed lawyer, he writes and plays music (Abel and Rawls), and he teaches literature. Abel resides in rural Georgia. 



Cartographer 


I. 


On the walls, 

door frame to sill to 

window to corner and then 

again, are topo maps their smallish  

lines that somehow follow shades  

blended into bold edges long and  

bordered with green-brown lighter  

to night-like loud  

whispering. 


II. 


I think I’m obsessed  

when it comes to those maps, 

resolved but not resigned  

to letter forms, some with  

Latin roots draping over steps,  

drop-offs onto even wider plains 

and smaller clustered right-angled  

signs of intent. 


III. 


If I’ve missed something 

through my focus on detail or  

its other, then it’s on me—  

my zeroed-in standing-back has  

taken me away or zoomed me  

towards, while my purpose begins  

or has begun to elude or render  

anything not plotted by degrees  

of east west north south  

as meritless.


© 2023 L. Ward Abel

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