Maurice Mancini

Maurice Mancini

destruction precedes construction - Picasso

objects are just an external manifestation of an internal process - Mo

put it on ice, it don't go bad - Ray

I received an MA Sculpture from Goddard College, Plainfield ,Vermont in 1974. My advisor was Morgan Gibson, a poet, to whom I owe many thanks.

From my paternal grandfather, Carmine, I learned the magic, the beauty of a well told story and I was amazed by the wonderful gifts he made, with basic hand tools and salvaged materials. He heard the old men in the village say that man will never fly. He walked 10 miles to see the first airplane.

I am grateful to the Origami Poems Project for your support and waking me from my stupor.

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December 2013 update: "Another Day" was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by the Origami Poems Project.

Visit his Artist's Page and enjoy some guitar music while you read his poetry.

► Mo's Micro-chapbooks & selected poems are available below.

Origami Micro-chapbook	*Selected Poem(s)*
Sleeping with the Gypsy
Cover Art: Henri Rousseau 'The Sleeping Gypsy' •	{mooblock=Opening Lines} it perplexes her she says when pressed how he can make something so involved not knowing what it will be. become what it will become. he just stood there caught off guard stopped in his tracks that is all he's got he thought knowing starting somewhere he would rest somewhere here or there sooner or later and the journey would be the faces could be more or less familiar becoming or not • Maurice Mancini © 2014 {/mooblock}
Another Day
Artwork by Mo Mancini	{mooblock=Opening Lines} Six miles on the bike path, brings me through the edge of "The Great Swamp" ending at the train station, where I neither see someone off or on, as the case may be. I usually stay long enough to watch at least one train pass through or stop, on its way. This is not like Grand Central with its endless flow of travelers, local and beyond. The dearly departed and the recently arrived passing shoulder to shoulder, seeming to take no notice of the other. I notice their passing dissolving into the stream of passersby. • Maurice Mancini © 2013 {/mooblock}
Postcards from Paradise
	{mooblock=Postcards from Paradise} the faces look familiar though the names i don't recall i must have been there old photographs have no reason to lie. post cards from paradise but i'm left with a longing i just don't understand for something lost long ago beyond my grasp before kodachrome. post cards from paradise bring me no peace places forgotten, lost faces and this boat just carries me further from shore, drifting with this postcard from paradise. • Maurice Mancini © 2012 {/mooblock}
Street Corner Poet
Cover: Charlie Getter / Barts Street Corner Poets	{mooblock=Looking for you or someone like you all my life} a flicker caught in the corner of my eye as I drove home past the farm the full moon in the clearing running beside me as it rises in the heavens and while this motion drew me along on the radio “dreaming of a world” rose to awareness threshold I have been wondering about you, I have not seen you or any sign of you as of late and before I saw the moon before I began dreaming of this world I thought of you • Maurice Mancini © 2012 {/mooblock}
Shaking the ground where I rest
	{mooblock=Poem III} another bike ride brings me to the train station again lingering long enough to see and feel the high speed Acela fly by heading north shaking the ground where I rest and then the high speed Acela flys by heading south again shaking the ground where I rest before climbing aboard my bike sliding my feet into the cages adjusting my grip and setting myself comfortably into the saddle picking up speed as I leave the station heading west on my return before the setting sun over takes me and daylight abandons me • Maurice Mancini © 2011 {/mooblock}
Social Dancing
	{mooblock=Social Dancing} social dancing at ten or eleven once a week after school we meet in the cafeteria properly attired groups of boy and girls laughing, giggling and snickering until miss malmberg, the principal arrived amongst bows and courtesy's we fox trotted waltzed and even cha cha’d but really this story has gone on for too long it is not about the dancing but the dance after the dancing it must have been winter class was dismissed we clambered about the coat rack hats coats gloves my gloves were gone gloves lynn had taken my gloves my memory has discarded some details the facts remain true lynn had taken my gloves repeatedly to my request for their return she denied their possession seemingly taunting me with her denial I went home without gloves probably with hands in my pockets my own returning to school next morning lynn greets me here are your gloves those are not my gloves I retort no bow no curtsey no dance a lesson I long remember • Maurice Mancini © 2009 {/mooblock}
Collaborative with Lynnie Gobeille
Do You Hear Me Now
	{mooblock=Opening Lines} a boat a smaller boat a boat small enough for easy short handed sailing large enough for Spartan accommodations and good sea keeping abilities it was dark and blustery echoing my mind’s state when I leave the marina the boat prepped and secure seeking the turbulence hidden in the darkness within the wind to soothe my soul • Maurice Mancini © 2011 {/mooblock}
Uncle
	{mooblock=UNCLE} Page One: I have been working on a story about my uncle but it seems to be an unstable platform and keeps shifting in its sleep as if alive evolving, even as he is dead my uncle died, just shy of eighty-nine years a cantankerous old man I miss you already but find solace in knowing you are in good hands again hoping you find peace in the home of your father comfort by your mother’s side and joy in the welcoming arms of your brother I wrote infrequent letters describing some project or event in my life sometimes I sent pictures, maybe a poem never a reply or a mention, I wrote when I wanted rarer were my visits · Maurice Mancini © 2011 {/mooblock}
Along The Way
	{mooblock=Untitled} do not take a picture of me capture me forever frozen as I was for a moment let me paint a picture of myself for you as I am now in this moment with you becoming • Maurice Mancini © 2010 {/mooblock}

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