Larry Oakner

Larry Oakner Poems

Larry Oakner Biography

Larry Oakner’s poems have appeared in The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Tricycle: Buddhist News, PROVOKR.com, The Shambhala Times, The Jewish Literary Review, Lost Coast Review, Home Planet News, Mystic Nebula, Mobius, Long Island Quarterly, CCAR Journal, Kerem, SPSM&H, Purr, Westwind, Spectrum, Beyond Baroque and Marilyn. Oakner received his Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from the University of California at Los Angeles where he studied with poets Stephen Yenser and Charles Gullans, and at University of California at Santa Barbara where began his life-long connection with the poet Sam Hamill. Oakner’s essays on poets Jack Spicer and William Carlos Williams appeared in Manroot and Thoth: Graduate Studies in English (Syracuse University) , respectively.)

The Best Poem Of Larry Oakner

False Alarm

You are working the night shift
like a fireman dozing
boots and turnout coat standing in place
ready
for the 3 am call
that may never come
but ready nonetheless

There will be no fire tonight
or any night for that matter
no frayed wires smoldering
no spark catching curtains
or passion inflamed to the flash point
between us
so you can close your eyes and dream

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