The Tattooed Poets Project: Rob Talbert

Today's poem comes to us from Rob Talbert:

it became okay

Right now is fleeting

with the room to do

what was planned.

I have purpose to build

in a city and backyard,

in a method

where some days can

do the miraculous

thing of standing out.

I haven’t kept track

of all my Thursdays.

Ingenious ocean,

are you still waiting

for life to crawl

back into you? I need

to be on time for that.

My body is mostly you;

the tide coming and going

like breath. There are

dreams and people I’d

very much like to have back.

I lost them in hotels

and airports and locker

rooms and bars. I lost

them in Vermont fields

and gas stations. Going

back to the beginning

is a good place to start,

the first door,

the head of the oroboros,

the place in the knot where,

if pulled, will undo and return.

Do you know where

they are, ocean?

My fragments. My

sleeplessness. I feel no need

to stop walking just

because the land runs out.

That’s stubborn.

For the billionth time

the sun came out.

An additional poem, entitled "you jumped," can be seen (and heard) over at The 2River View. I recommend this also because you can hear Rob reading the poem by clicking on the audio player at the top of the page.

Please head over to Tattoosday to see one of Rob's tattoos here.

Rob Talbert is a native Texan and currently pursuing his MFA at Virginia Tech. His poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The American Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Southern Poetry Review. He was selected for 2009 Best of the Net and nominated for 2009 and 2010 Best New Poets.