Page last updated: June 10, 2024
All pages copyright © 2024 by Pinyon Publishing
THIS MOMENT
Poems by Ahrend Torrey
Ahrend Torrey invites readers to be participants in the play. He takes us into nature, inside and outside of the city; we emerge into fresh air. With humility, we’re conscious of destructive forces, from aging to gas-powered engines. We rebel against misery, choosing transfiguration into action. Through examining the nature of reality, consciousness, and the shared or no-time life experience, we walk away with a universal here-now. In THIS MOMENT, Now, is not a question:
To Wonder about Dandelion Seeds Is to Wonder about Ourselves
I watch brown puffs of sparrow. So many, so common.
In an instant this could be over. In an instant a nuke or storm could
hit, as it has, or worse. Now only, we feel air settle in our lungs,
we can preserve the earth, we can blow at the stalk of dandelion
seeds. This is not a question. Now, is not a question.
—The yellow-fanned dandelions are alive!—But what about their seeds
blown in today’s noon air—lifting off rooftops … how will they
In an instant this could be over. In an instant a nuke or storm could
hit, as it has, or worse. Now only, we feel air settle in our lungs,
we can preserve the earth, we can blow at the stalk of dandelion
seeds. This is not a question. Now, is not a question.
—The yellow-fanned dandelions are alive!—But what about their seeds
blown in today’s noon air—lifting off rooftops … how will they
survive?
AHREND TORREY is the author of If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant: The Jane Kenyon Erasure Poems (Pinyon Publishing, 2024), For What Are the Blossoms Reaching? (Limited Edition, Pinyon Publishing, 2023), Ripples (Pinyon Publishing, 2023), Bird City, American Eye (Pinyon Publishing, 2022), and Small Blue Harbor (Poetry Box Select, 2019). His work has appeared in Slippery Elm Literary Journal, storySouth, The Greensboro Review, Welter, The Westchester Review, and West Trade Review, among others. He is a recipient of the Etruscan Prize awarded by Etruscan Press and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize several times. Having lived in the Deep South most all his life, he now lives in Chicago with his husband, Jonathan; their two rat terriers, Dichter and Dova; and Purl, their cat. 
Bird City, American EyePoems and Proems (2022)
6"x9" paperback
106 pages
978-1-936671-81-6
$17.00.
ALSO BY AHREND TORREY
If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant: The Jane Kenyon Erasure Poems
(2024):
6"x9" paperback
88 pages
978-1-936671-96-0
$20.00
Ripples