Guest Poet Timothy Pettet

I am pleased to welcome my first guest poet, Timothy Pettet. I met Tim through The Writers Place. I have had the pleasure of hearing him read some of his Zero and Mona poems accompanied by music. I'll let him tell you the story...


Timothy Pettet decided to give himself a coming out party as a poet in the summer of 2000. He had been writing poetry since he was 18 or so but didn't regard himself as a poet until he was nearly 50 years old. His work has been published in several regional literary journals. Three of his poems from his narrative cycle about Zero and Mona will be appearing in the next issue of Coal City Review. It was in an effort to get a painter to participate in his coming out party that he met Jane Booth, who became his mentor and muse. The Zero and Mona poems came out of their dialogue about color and language, and Tim has written several poems in response to her painting. This painting is titled, "Adding Cream" and appears on Jane's website. The poem became known as "An Alchemy of Light" when it earned the honor of having music developed to accompany the poem. A melody by Nick Baker was adapted by Prometheus Unbound Ensemble. The poem's original title is "The Magic of Glass" and was developed in conversation with stained-glass artist, Viviane Faulkner. All rights to painting and poem are reserved.

An Alchemy of Light                        


The Magic of Glass

Added to sand,
liquefied by fire
and cooled to glass,
salts of copper
glow green
like the drapery of leaves
on a fisherman’s stream.

Salts of gold,
mixed with sand
and melted to flow
across the span
of invisible panes, flash
like the side of a rainbow trout.

Salts of cobalt
cool to the blue
of patience, allowing
the wiggle and glimmer
of a lure on the surface
to be enough – satisfaction
in the dream of the catch.


Timothy Pettet
2008