Ira Beryl Brukner

Ira Beryl Brukner was born in 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Brukner has taught at Middlebury College, Castleton State College, Community College of Vermont, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. For many years, Mr. Brukner was a poet-in-the-schools in New York and Vermont. As a performance-poet, Mr. Brukner has presented his work with jazz musicians Don Cherry, Joel Forrester, and Billy Bang in New York and Amsterdam. Ira Beryl Brukner has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Vermont Council for the Arts, and Jerome Foundation. A member of PEN-American Center and PEN-Nederland, Mr. Brukner currently lives in Ithaca, New York.

Water


 


    b.

    speeding and stopping like


    horizontal exclamation points


    disguised as squirrels


    across green grass

    below the hollow


    listening to my heart


    kite tail gaggles of geese


    blowing through the white

    a high-flying kiwi


    is playing the piano


    I forget my slow foot


    and jump up on the table

    trumpet charms


    a sitting woman


    she shimmies up quick


    on strong legs

    drummer drifts


    bass is on the phone


    a light rain falling


    we walk-skip home

    dancing upside-down


    lightning free


    dancing inside-out


    touch me

    calla lily


    near the straw hat


    of a gardener

    brush of air


    through the trees