Gumball Poetry - Poetry by Tom C. Hunley

Tom C. Hunley

How to Make Orange Juice

First you have to make the oranges.
To do that you must become
an orange tree, which means moving
to Florida or Southern California.
If you go to San Diego, the beach
will beckon you, with its bikinis
and its waves, and you will feel the temptation

to take up surfing, which would get in the way
of becoming an orange tree. Stay focused
on your goals. Visualize all things orange:
carrots bursting from the ground,
a field of poppies blossoming all
at once, like some unplanned party,
a haunted house peopled by jack-o-lanterns.
Eat only the orange M&Ms
in each packet. Make friends only

with redheads. Concentrate entirely
on orange juice, which is not the same
as buying orange juice made from concentrate.
Stop looking for the easy way.

Tom C. Hunley graduated with an MFA in Writing from Eastern Washington University. He teaches literature, creative writing and composition classes at Tacoma Community College and has poems forthcoming in Southern Poetry Review, Troubadour, Curious Rooms, Chiron Review, Heliotrope, and The Temple.

(editors note: Gumball Poetry seems to be accidentally collecting EWU MFA Grads, see other EWU MFA'ers Scott Poole here and here, and Steve Brodsky here).

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9.28.2000
12been from S.D., CA

funny woven tight piece with the message firmly embedded.
I liked this for so many reasons. It reminds me of Lorca, in it's plain speech, yet it tickles me to read. S's 1-3 are equally delightful and made me smile at the mild sardonic tone. Just enough sardony. Not too much which is a trap that many fall into. Being able to inject this precise amount of humor is hard. I know, I wish that the author were me. Great Poem Tom!
Nice ending as well.

7.19.2000
Kelli Russell Agodon from Kingston, WA - the center of the universe

A great ride! OJ perfection!
Loved this, Tom! My favorite line "Make friends only with redheads." This is true Hunley at its best.
Nice ending as well.

6.22.2000
cj from ca

Great piece
Bravo!

6.19.2000
?? from denver, CO

question for you
Have you read Lorrie Moore? This is very much in her style, esp. Self Help, which I recommend to everyone.

5.24.2000
Kris Bierk (poetry@cleansheets.com) from Boston, MA

An orange flavored gumball, that is.
You know, it would be completely possible to write a lovely poem in which someone actually prepares a pitcher of orange juice. This one veered off that track immediately though and was concise enough that I was still chuckling until the end.
Quite right that this is a poem to send a friend.

5.24.2000
Matt Foster (matthewjfoster@hotmail.com) from Gig Harbor, WA

sounds like real life
I see, highlighted in this poem, a theme near and dear to my own heart: Excess is the key to success! If a little is good, a lot must ge great, and reinventing the wheel must yield perfection! I found this poem both insightful and humorous, though perhaps more the ladder.

5.09.2000
Sherry Chandler from Paris, Kentucky

It's a poem - my highest praise
A very good Kentucky poet named James Baker Hall says it's easy to tell when a piece of writing is a poem. It's a poem if you want to hear the same words in the same order again. If you want to stop your friends and say "Listen to this!" then it's a really good poem. "How to Make Orange Juice" is a poem I'd read to my friends. The language flows nicely off the tongue and it is original language. Not pretentious and overworked. Original.

Each issue of Gumball Poetry has one poem that delights me. This one is it for Spring 2000. It is exactly the kind of poem I'd like to find in a Gumball capsule.

5.09.2000
Scott Poole (spoole@spocom.com) from Spokane, WA

lines of thought
This poem I will remember. I like the idea of following a poet along an idea no matter where it goes. Tension builds as we move along, wondering how this thing will be resolved. Would have liked more about being an orange tree, and less about concentraion, but still an above average poem that kept my interest. A rare thing these days.

5.09.2000
Melissa from Kent, Wa

silly
This poem is one to put a smile on your face. However it does not make you feel anything. To make the reader feel the poem I would have liked a feeling from the writer.

5.04.2000
Susan H. from Gig Harbor, Wa

It didn't really jump out at me
I liked that it was about goals and not being distracted, but I am not really sure I like the topic of orange juice. It seemed to say that if you want something bad enough you have to focus only on things that evolve around it, which I don't believe is totally true. You can have dreams and achieve goals without it totally be your whole life.

5.04.2000
Marissa from Des Moines, WA

It was very logical...
Very unique as we poets all should be very logical in the way things were placed and worded. Humorous in some parts. Overall, good poem.

5.04.2000
Joe Bangert (jmb488@psu.edu) from University Park, PA

Outstanding creativity.
Here's the line (picture my hand in front of me and vertical). Here's you thinking outside of the line (picture my other hand also in front of me, crossing the imaginary line of the first hand). What a creative poem. Very smooth, unique, and most importantly, made me thirsty.