Steve Abbott

Tipton Poetry Journal – Spring 2021

Circadian

Steve Abbott

From the space station where it’s always some form of night, parts of the planet refuse darkness. Bands of light mark both coasts, a glow matched across Europe, southeast Asia, the angles of India and Brazil. North Korea’s blackout curtains drape a shroud that mirrors its days. Down here, TV’s window to other worlds pulses demands that I stay awake for the nightly must-see, promising distraction that will keep ghosts at bay. When the remnants of Hurricane Ike wandered up the middle of the country, the power was out for days. There was water and gas, and the pantry held enough that I could cook. A candlelit bath allowed the illusion of romance. But TV’s blue eye was shut. I tried reading in the dim circle an oil lamp drew on the front porch. Neighbors waved from their stoops, sometimes strolled over to talk. Still, in no time I was nodding, curling into myself to a primal rhythm, accepting again the small mammal I’ve always been.

Steve Abbott was a founder in 1984 of The Poetry Forum, now one of the country’s longest-running poetry reading series, and continues as a co-host. His poems have appeared in Rattle, Connecticut Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Birmingham Poetry Review, among others. He has published five chapbooks and two full-length collections, A Green Line Between Green Fields and A Language the Image Speaks, a collection of ekphrastic poems including artwork. He also edited the poetry anthology Cap City Poets (2008), a collection of 74 central Ohio poets, as well as two anthologies for Ohio Poetry Association: Everything Stops and Listens (2013) and Eclipsing the Dark: Poems from the Sun and Moon Poetry Festival, 2014-2019 (2020). He also edits OPA's annual journal Common Threads. He lives in Columbus with his wife Melanie Boyd and Loki, World’s Best Dog. www.steveabbott.us