Utah Poems Project

Here is the intro to a chapbook of poems I am writing about Utah. The idea has been ruminating for a while but I started collecting/finishing pieces this week. I'm already well along and quite pleased.


"This small book about Utah was written the year after I left Utah for New York City (get the rope!). Most of the poems are drastic rewrites of material I first wrote during my seven years (one mission, two degrees) as a student at BYU. This book is, among other things, a love song, an indictment, and a valediction. Please enjoy"


One of the degrees I mention is obviously still pending, so we'll see. In the meantime, please enjoy this new poem I wrote today for the Utah project:


Hill Fire

We climbed out bedroom windows
to the roof slope of the Avenues
and watched the hill fire burn down Y mountain
alive with danger from both inclines.

Andrew was in town playing minor league baseball
with the Missoula Osprey
a water bird.
He sat on the roof crown and made jokes
about his root beer.
all the Dominicans were on steroids and the groupies
were loose.
my poor roommates, he was one hell of an ember.

The wind changed and took away one danger
my careful angled footsteps
hand on the roof at the level of my hip
carried me from another.
Andrew stayed up with his root beer alone.

That day's dual fear has seared the memory
whereas others have flown the field
like a water bird
rusted like aluminum, lonely
gone dark like the charred sage of a mountain.


Aaron Allen