​Paul Cezanne’s The Turn in the Road, by Alan Bern

The Turn in the Road, by Paul Cezanne (France) 1881

​Paul Cezanne’s The Turn in the Road
 
I
There are houses
at a close distance.
They are a town,
wedges at angles.
Their fronts and doors
conjure paths and roads.
Roof-
colors question
 
II
the vegetables, many-
fingered touches: dot-leaves
mass into shape around
fully-clothed
branches and towards
dying ones. Trunks curve
and straighten to earth.
Grasses comb the bank of the
 
III
road toward fences & mounds;
the turn
in the road: one step on the straight
and I am drawn
into the town.

Alan Bern

Retired children’s librarian Alan Bern’s three poetry books: No no the saddest and Waterwalking in Berkeley, Fithian Press; greater distance, Lines & Faces, his fine press and publishing company with artist and printer Robert Woods, linesandfaces.com. Alan is a writer and photographer who has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and has won awards for both his poems and stories: runner up for The Raw Art Review's The John H. Kim Memorial Short Fiction Prize for his story; won a medal from SouthWest Writers for his story 'The Return of the Very Fierce Wolf of Gubbio to Assisi, 1943 CE [and now, 2013 CE].' Alan was also a finalist in the NCWN’s 2019 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and he won the Littoral Press Poetry Prize in 2015. Alan performs with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES: dance & poetry fit to the space and with musicians from Composing Together, composingtogether.org.