APRIL 2026: Alan Abrams

"an egret stalks the shadows—
strikes—shakes—swallows."

("UPON AN UPTURNED BENCH AT KENILWORTH MARSH")

For April's Maryland Artist of the Month, Artists from Maryland is featuring Alan Abrams! Below, you will find two of his poems, and an artist's statement.

Alan Abrams, a retired builder and building designer, dabbles in poetry, short stories, and stage and screen writing. He is also the founder and chief editor of Sligo Creek Publishing. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

ELEGY FOR LUCY HORTON BURGE

The wind died and the trees stood at attention,
in silent witness to Tom and his two boys,
taking turns with the urn that held her ashes,
sowing them along the edge of Deep Creek Lake.

The air so still, a faint cloud of dust
rose and slowly vanished—
as though it were her spirit
on the way to heaven.

//

UPON AN UPTURNED BENCH AT KENILWORTH MARSH

"I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God
And the almond tree blossomed.'”
—Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

It’s beastly hot for man if not for beast,
where I teeter on an upturned bench
(its seat is now its back, its back, the seat)
and gaze across the swollen marsh, as

an egret stalks the shallows—
strikes—shakes—swallows.
Swifts skim the mirror surface
in pursuit of insects, unseen.

Omen clouds conglomerate,
distant thunder mumbles.
Drizzle turns the pond to lace,
and the temperature tumbles

for beast and man alike. In no rush
am I to quit my precarious perch,
upon this tottering upturned pew,
in this mizzly sylvan church.


The setting is just inside the District Line, near the Aquatic Gardens
(Previously published in The Braided Way)

//

My voice springs from the grease and grit of the motorcycle shop, and from the dust and cacophony of the construction site. It is inspired by the pages of Melville and Faulkner, Shakespeare and the King James Bible. It is humbled by the mountains of New Mexico, and mellowed by the woodlands and waters of Maryland. As a writer and publisher, my mission is to bear witness—to the world before my eyes, and to the people and events that animate it.