John S. Williams is a poet and book publicist residing in Portland, OR. He has an MA in Writing and presently studies Book Publishing at Portland State University,
where he serves as Acquisitions Manager of Ooligan Press and publicist for Three Muses Press. His poetry was nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize, and his debut chapbook, A Pure River, was published in 2010 by The Last Automat Press. Some of his over 100 previous or upcoming publications include: The Evansville Review, RHINO, Rosebud, Ellipsis, Flint Hills Review, Euphony, Open Letters, Cadillac Cicatrix, Juked, The Journal, Hawaii Review, Cutthroat, The Furnace Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Aries, and River Oak Review.
---------
Plumage
My song of you echoes
in another bed
where we have not slept
in a house tearing itself apart.
This floorboard is the heart.
This splintered bed frame is the spine.
This clock is a necessary shadow.
This pull to darkness restores us
restores the complexity of shape.
My song is our fiction
is the hallway between doors.
I sing so as not to live
the poet’s love
so the myth unfolds its wings
around us
and begins to fly.