Cairn

by James Thomas Fletcher

From the author of Poems from Terra , landmarks, monuments, and tombstones along the road of life. Meditations on nature, love, longing, war, and being.


PRAISE FOR JAMES THOMAS


A penetrating and provocative smorgasbord. His poems sing and inform in thoughtful, non-conforming, wonderful ways. Life's harmonies coupled with a realistic sprinkling of irony and brilliant dissonance. An existential celebration of life.


From intimacies of love to an explanation of the universe, by way of a walk on the noir side ... Fletcher spotlights the quirks of human longing and the enigmas of memory.


I have always favored the slow sipping of a refreshing libation mixed with a perfect blend of romance and magic ... adorned with the lemon-lime twist of macabre fantasy.


The breadth of topics is impressive. [Fletcher's] depth of thought, humor, love for words, and poetic skill made the book a joy and a challenge to read.


Humor, passion, reverence, irreverence; a connection to people, a reflection on life and self, an exploration of ideas. The tantalizing hints and allusions made me want to have the poet in the same room so that I could plumb for more.


Highly personal, experiential.... free flowing exuberance of the visual. The intensity of feeling is superior.... Their complexity is almost painful.... I was moved, confused, astounded, curious, excited.


A 'Fletcher' adds feathers to arrows to make them fly true. James Thomas Fletcher's poems ... fly straight to a reader's heart. Fun, intelligent, trenchant.


Explore these shorter samples for a glimpse into Cairn.



BLUE LAKE

thunderstorms rage outside
the window
and a young heron
sits in the middle of my lake

like a blue asparagus
on the back of a sun
drenched iguana


OBSIDIAN

Obsidian.
The word lies immovable on the page.
A boulder among pebbles
of words. Poets unearth it
as an ancient coin found beneath
the sand or sprinkle it
like a rare dark jewel.
Its thud-heavy
weight attracts the eye like light
to a black hole.


TUCKPOINTING

When no one's looking
the ivy vine slips
its feet into the mortar
between the line of scruffled
bricks, tucks itself
into the cracks and waits
creviced for winter.

Genres: Poetry

163 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 7, 2017

About the author

James Thomas Fletcher is native to Oklahoma. After a brief stint in college, he left the state to see if the rest of the world existed. Along the way, he picked cotton, made fiberglass and, in hazmat suit, cleaned filters inside a nuclear laundry. He was an M-60 machine gunner in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, company clerk at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, (NATO\SHAPE) in Belgium, bartender in South Carolina, bricklayer in Oklahoma, oil field chainhand in Louisiana, roustabout in the Gulf of Mexico, English instructor in North Carolina, and Director of Computer-Aided Instruction at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Academically, he holds Master’s of Arts in English degrees in Creative Writing and Composition & Rhetoric, has been honored for outstanding teaching, and presented at national and international conferences on the subject of computer pedagogy. In addition, he has earned Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Advanced Certified Novell Administrator computer certifications.

Now retired, his motorcycle and hang glider long since sold. His pilot's license expired. He no longer restores pinball machines, skydives, scubas, sails, or paints. He has forgotten how to play the bagpipe. His didgeridoo sits idle. He was once removed by the director from a part in his own stage play, but that has not discouraged him from continuing to write. He has written short stories, plays, and screenplays, but favors poetry.

He lives on the side of a volcano in the Republic of Panamá

Reviews

[D.A. Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many terrific and well-crafted poems here. Often collections aim for the intellect or the emotions but not always both - this does. And a wide range of subjects that stretch a person's knowledge of culture, history and the physical world. Strong writing.

[Byron Edgington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here we have a book of poetry that follows its title. A Cairn is something erected since ancient times as a landmark, a gathering of stones pointing the way through a wilderness. James Thomas Fletcher's latest offering, Cairn, marks the way through a wilderness of his past and in many ways of every readers' past. Disclaimer: I was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. I could have been the pilot of Jim's aircraft in The Chopper Out, a relevant poem that illustrates one of those markers, the insouciance of youth: 'Not a mark on me,' the poet states, despite 'the bullet crease in my steel pot.' Been there; done that; recognize the marker.
Any poet, any writer worth a nickel is in love with words & phrases and Fletcher is no exception: Obsidian, Electricity, 'ever so Bambi-esque,' and two of my favorites, 'miasmic adverbial swamp' and 'poetry is where you don't see it.' In Dear Great Heart, Fletcher describes a singular lesson from childhood, 'I learn to zip myself before going out into the world.' Some things we take for granted that we've learned along the way, others we recognize by their Cairns, their markers, such as a sad commentary on thought in Swinging in the Breeze: 'It is difficult to think now, there's no place for it.' This is a cairn for how cacophonous our world has become, the poet reminding us that markers show the way through a wilderness, but they also mark the way back.
As with much of Fletcher's work, there are poems dedicated to people in his past: a certain Amanda, his father (and his signature cough), Ma Duncan whose cooking made her patrons 'lie down under a shade tree,' a certain Scarlet Lady who seems to have been born too soon to explore her 'firecracker soul,' and Patty, who shared the sounds of 'Whales & Nightingales.'
Mostly the poems in Cairn are markers of the human condition, not just Fletcher's but everyone's, as should be true of any poetry worth reading. My favorite? Perhaps The Waiting Game, a poem I recognize the drama of, revealing nothing about myself, and everything. The comment makes true another Fletcherism: 'The tinge of madness edges around many of my poems.' Also, Ohio State Dream, because, as an OSU alum, I read the threat implicit in the madness with 'Scarlet and gray everywhere.'
If madness is to be explored, Cairn shows us how to recognize it along our way. And that's what Cairns are supposed to do.
Byron Edgington author of A Vietnam Anthem. A Vietnam Anthem: What The War Gave Me

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Thomas Fletcher’s Cairn is a touching and compelling read. The breadth and scope of Fletcher’s work reveals a great intellect; however, I know a lot of smart people who are quite boring – Fletcher’s gift is to make his intelligence relevant – from a quote of Salman Rushdie to a rumination on 9-11 and a reverie on whales and nightingales, Fletcher’s wealth of knowledge is always present, but never overbearing in his work. Indeed, some of the poems mine concepts that I did not think would be subject to poetry, such as hermeneutics and tessellation.

A key theme, and one which melds the influences of “head” and “heart,” is Fletcher’s examination of poetry and what it means to be a poet. Cairn examines the creative process and the many avenues Fletcher explores as he writes. He asserts that each poem has a life of its own, and in the poems he refuses to give the reader the “answer” of what he means – he demands that each reader find his or her meaning in each poem. However, Fletcher explains that he is “in” every poem – reading the poems is “learning/knowing” who Fletcher is.

Containing perhaps the most personal poems, “Love & Life” is a wonderful section which is full of poignancy and insight. I was touched by Fletcher’s poems about friendship and love as they harken to the spirit of Shelley, Keats and Byron. Fletcher’s best poems affirm the beauty of a loving heart. I’d recommend the collection if it contained only the “Love & Life” section for its intimacy and emotion.