Two Poems by BZ Niditch

In the Attic

In the embracing attic
of dream and songbird
those days of sunshine
when leaves turn a blush red
after a night music of love
when letters arrive
from foreign bodies
from an unknown city
saying my poems
about the sea
have moved you
here it is snowing out
my riffs
line by line
voice by voice
by a now known name
and picture
from a first kinetic light.



Stopped in Manhattan

Stopped to play sax
with riffs to old loves
in the Red Apple gig
still at the old red light district
by dusty basement apartments
of a brownstone
full of my city's young graffiti
over a bygone cinema
featuring Spanish films
while halfway up the steps
losing my night music
of my memory's smooth jazz
where once I began
my first composing
on a Mondrian like printed carpet
the air translating my shadows
by rubbed out nick names
on a hundred year old evergreen.

BZ Niditch is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and teacher.  His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including:  Columbia:  A Magazine of Poetry and Art, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, Hawaii Review, Le Guepard (France), Kadmos (France), Prism International, Jejune (Czech Republic), Leopold Bloom (Budapest), Antioch Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others.  He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.