Conversations Overheard in a Restaurant is a collection of poetry. At times playful, at times moody . . . at times funny and at times atmospheric, Conversations Overheard in a Restaurant`Robert Alan Clanton's first published collection of poems-invites the reader to observe both the universal and the unfamiliar through this poet's specialized lens. Though approachable and direct, these poems are never ordinary, and surprises often lurk around the corner. From his deeply personal memories of childhood and teenage years, to bittersweet stories of love found and love lost, to his reverent and sometimes spiritual observations of earth and nature, Clanton's poems tease the reader into turning each page in search of the next cinematic vignette. Often tactile and sensory, Clanton's imagery beckons us into each place and time: the shrouding snow and bitter chill of Medicine Wheel Passage, Wyoming; the palpable tension between friends in Still Life in Afternoon Light; the playful eroticism and olfactory enticement of Recipe for Pasta Primavera; the harmonious, mystical forces of natural beauty found in Chapel of the Transfiguration; and the idyllic thread of a fourth generation Floridian's love of unspoiled places in Resurrection Fern. Conversations Overheard in a Restaurant is a collection of snapshots, stories and little movies-bound together in the enticing form of the carefully crafted narrative poem, and there are flavors and textures here to please the palate of anyone who savors contemporary poetry.

Conversations Overheard in a Restaurant

POEMSBy Robert Alan Clanton

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Robert Alan Clanton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-4279-0

Contents

Introduction:..........................................................................vAuthor's Note:.........................................................................ixAcknowledgements:......................................................................xiThe Geometry of Clouds.................................................................1Chapel of the Transfiguration..........................................................3A God Named Joey.......................................................................4Confessions to the Mountains...........................................................6Waterspouts............................................................................8Somewhere West of the Cedar Mountains, Utah............................................10New Smyrna Beach, 1980.................................................................12Poem Written on a Gallery Schedule for July-August.....................................14Goldsboro Park.........................................................................16Alligator Point........................................................................18Conversation Overheard in a Restaurant in Poncha Springs, Colorado.....................20Physics 101............................................................................22North of the Caldera Boundary..........................................................24The Presbyterian Pilot.................................................................25Apalachicola Bay.......................................................................27Leaving Your Baggage on the Tracks.....................................................29BBQ is Subjective......................................................................32Journalism Club, November 1975.........................................................34Thirteenth Floor.......................................................................36Conversation With the Waitress.........................................................38Postcards From Spain...................................................................40The Girl Who Could Draw Like Roger Dean................................................42Medicine Wheel Passage, Wyoming........................................................45East Building, National Gallery of Art.................................................47Recipe for Pasta Primavera.............................................................49Envy...................................................................................52Peace River............................................................................53Random Things Culled From a World Almanac & Book of Facts..............................54Snow in Good Hope......................................................................57Navigation.............................................................................59Sunset Near Bainbridge, Georgia........................................................61Greek Restaurant, East Moriches, Long Island...........................................62Tsala Apopka Lake......................................................................64Resurrection Fern......................................................................66Sunday Chiffon Pie, November 1996......................................................68Orange Julius, 1972....................................................................70Moon Rise, Atlantic Beach, Florida.....................................................72Mountville, South Carolina.............................................................74Recipe for Champurrado.................................................................76Crater Lake, June 18...................................................................77One & One & One is Three...............................................................78Aisles of Temptation...................................................................80Still Life in Afternoon Light, April 1983..............................................82Fed by the Gulf........................................................................84A Blush From the Touch of Snow.........................................................85Power Outage, Calhoun County, Florida..................................................87The Cold Chase.........................................................................89Superstitions of the Heart.............................................................91Necessary Clutter......................................................................94Erasing the Hangover...................................................................95Dillon Pinnacles.......................................................................98Godzilla Versus Opie Taylor............................................................99Burnt Umber, November 1963.............................................................101Dancing With the Wind..................................................................103Weeding Under the Azaleas..............................................................105Miami International Airport, March 1997................................................107Shortly Before Midnight................................................................109The Fun Parts..........................................................................110Ocean Artistry.........................................................................112Liquefying Sunset......................................................................113Golden Gate............................................................................115Conversation in a Restaurant on West 72nd Street.......................................117Sunset.................................................................................120The Wind Above the Garden..............................................................121The Possessions of Sleep...............................................................123A Few Additional Notes:................................................................125

Chapter One

The Geometry of Clouds Weightless somewhere at thirty three thousand feet the ocean foam-colored airscape seems benign: the color of a jolly old man's beard, the color, at least, of a sea of shaving cream. Back on the concrete at Detroit the clouds menaced: We had taxied anxiously through gray air and falling snow. Now, quietly above them, the clouds form lines, patterns- a method to their moist madness-like the huddled queues back in the Northwest terminal. We fly south, geese escaping the bitter air, and underneath we see nothing of Michigan or Ohio save their clouds. Somewhere above the Ohio River I stare into the stunning rich cobalt blue of sky toward the east where the air and the dry vacuum of space dissolve like a liquid dance, and the sun-bleached whiteness of the clouds below stings each retina, burns like jet fuel under my eyelids. But still I stare, scouring, searching for the shadow of the plane which I cannot find among the clam chowder hillocks, ragged valleys, and cotton candy spirals below, the shadow perhaps too dense, too heavy even for the delicate top edge of the foam, too tangible even for the imagined weight against the surface. But the clouds have their lines, their...