bridge avenue perfumery (by Jeffrey Bowen)

Jeffrey Bowen – photo by Kim Yanoshik

bridge avenue perfumery 

he sniffs the air like his canine brothers,

detects artist’s paint and sweet roses

on the summer breeze,

cigarettes and herb

from the neighbor’s open window,

sulfur from the most recent barrage

of fourth of july firecrackers,

red wine and black coffee

walking hand in hand

toward the gathering sounds

of ohio city restaurants.

he’s missing the party,
again,

stayed home alone

to do the laundry,

read,

keep close company with old records,

and words wrapped tightly

like hand rolled

cuban cigars.

he savors the solitude

but longs for

feminine contact,

the top note of anticipation

wafting like jasmine

across the citrus

of intelligent conversation.

he savors the caress

of this cool summer day’s slowly

passing,

recalls the warm sands of proximity,

the euphoria of bright eyes across the table,

and fingers barely touching
electric.

* * * * *

Jeffrey Bowen’s poetry has been published by ArtCrimes, Cicada, Cool Cleveland, Crisis Chronicles, CSU Poetry Center, Dimensions, Doan Brook Watershed, Excursions, Green Panda Press, Hessler Street Fair, Procrastination Press, Poet’s League of Greater Cleveland, The City, The Cleveland Reader, and Whiskey Island Magazine.  He is one of six poets profiled in the 1995 documentary, “Off the Page”.  Four of his poems are featured on Cleveland Tumbadors, an album of Traditional Afro Cuban Music and Latin Jazz on Fame City Records.  Jeffrey is the resident poet & conga player with the band, Cats On Holiday, and his poetry appears on their CD, Holiday in a Box from COHTONE Records.  In addition to his poetic work, Jeffrey’s writing has appeared in Call & Post, City News, Cool Cleveland, EcoWatch, Elephant Journal, Girl Scout News, GreenCityBlueLake, Live Cleveland, Neighborhood News, Nonprofit Notes, Sun News and various Habitat for Humanity publications.

alchemy (by Jeffrey Bowen)

Jeffrey Bowen – photo by Kim Yanoshik

alchemy 

from this series of silicon chips, copper wire, quartz relays,

and plastics extruded

from the underground seas of ancient trees

and dinosaur bones,

come electrical impulses,

shamanic magic,

allowing words to bounce from fingers on keys,

to the small blinking antenna in the corner of the living room,

just this side of the river-view window,

through a series of wires

to a cell tower dish,

and then to a satellite circling the earth

beyond the atmosphere,

then back down again

to another dish,

atop a massive data storage facility,

inside a sierra madre

compound,

on the other side of the continent,

or perhaps as close as a basement lab

at the university on the other side of town,

and then, in the blink of an eye,

a nod of the head,

pass from dish to cable to dish

and back again,

until they come to rest on another screen,

become retinal impression,

synapse,

inhalation,

lips just forming a smile.



* * * * *

Jeffrey Bowen’s poetry has been published by ArtCrimes, Cicada, Cool Cleveland, Crisis Chronicles, CSU Poetry Center, Dimensions, Doan Brook Watershed, Excursions, Green Panda Press, Hessler Street Fair, Procrastination Press, Poet’s League of Greater Cleveland, The City, The Cleveland Reader, and Whiskey Island Magazine.  He is one of six poets profiled in the 1995 documentary, “Off the Page”.  Four of his poems are featured on Cleveland Tumbadors, an album of Traditional Afro Cuban Music and Latin Jazz on Fame City Records.  Jeffrey is the resident poet & conga player with the band, Cats On Holiday, and his poetry appears on their CD, Holiday in a Box from COHTONE Records.  In addition to his poetic work, Jeffrey’s writing has appeared in Call & Post, City News, Cool Cleveland, EcoWatch, Elephant Journal, Girl Scout News, GreenCityBlueLake, Live Cleveland, Neighborhood News, Nonprofit Notes, Sun News and various Habitat for Humanity publications.

twenty five (by Jeffrey Bowen)

Jeffrey Bowen – photo by Kim Yanoshik

twenty five 

once, when you were a little thing,
and excited to tell me
about some imagined future event,
you started by saying,

“when i’m as big as you, and you are little like me…”

and I was blown away to think
that in your child’s unblemished mind
you assumed
that this was simply
the way things worked.

now that many moons and stories have passed,
and we celebrate your milestone birthday
of five and twenty,

i understand that you are not
quite suddenly
a quarter of a century old,
but millenniums young

and rather than trading places,
we have expanded like stars,
to become,
in our heart of hearts,
exactly
the same age. 



* * * * *

Jeffrey Bowen’s poetry has been published by ArtCrimes, Cicada, Cool Cleveland, Crisis Chronicles, CSU Poetry Center, Dimensions, Doan Brook Watershed, Excursions, Green Panda Press, Hessler Street Fair, Procrastination Press, Poet’s League of Greater Cleveland, The City, The Cleveland Reader, and Whiskey Island Magazine.  He is one of six poets profiled in the 1995 documentary, “Off the Page”.  Four of his poems are featured on Cleveland Tumbadors, an album of Traditional Afro Cuban Music and Latin Jazz on Fame City Records.  Jeffrey is the resident poet & conga player with the band, Cats On Holiday, and his poetry appears on their CD, Holiday in a Box from COHTONE Records.  In addition to his poetic work, Jeffrey’s writing has appeared in Call & Post, City News, Cool Cleveland, EcoWatch, Elephant Journal, Girl Scout News, GreenCityBlueLake, Live Cleveland, Neighborhood News, Nonprofit Notes, Sun News and various Habitat for Humanity publications.

dear janus (by Jeffrey Bowen)

Jeffrey Bowen – photo by Kim Yanoshik

dear janus

it’s funny,
how after years of experience,
mindfulness,
achievement,
growth and healing,

we can still find ourselves
kicking a frozen gas pump,

screaming at the idiot taking up two lanes
in only one inch of snow,

or railing,
spit flying from the mouth,
at the steel grey skies themselves,

as if, despite the crazy-unusual temperatures,
this was somehow not
another late january
in ohio.



* * * * *

Jeffrey Bowen’s poetry has been published by ArtCrimes, Cicada, Cool Cleveland, Crisis Chronicles, CSU Poetry Center, Dimensions, Doan Brook Watershed, Excursions, Green Panda Press, Hessler Street Fair, Procrastination Press, Poet’s League of Greater Cleveland, The City, The Cleveland Reader, and Whiskey Island Magazine.  He is one of six poets profiled in the 1995 documentary, “Off the Page”.  Four of his poems are featured on Cleveland Tumbadors, an album of Traditional Afro Cuban Music and Latin Jazz on Fame City Records.  Jeffrey is the resident poet & conga player with the band, Cats On Holiday, and his poetry appears on their CD, Holiday in a Box from COHTONE Records.  In addition to his poetic work, Jeffrey’s writing has appeared in Call & Post, City News, Cool Cleveland, EcoWatch, Elephant Journal, Girl Scout News, GreenCityBlueLake, Live Cleveland, Neighborhood News, Nonprofit Notes, Sun News and various Habitat for Humanity publications.