ATTORNEY JOHN PERRAULT, Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, has two poems published in Off the Record, an anthology of poetry by lawyers, published by The Legal Studies Forum of the College of Law, West Virginia University (see page 21, June 4 Bar News for book review). Perrault holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire and is a graduate of Franklin Pierce Law School; he is a partner in the Portsmouth firm of Ahlgren, Perrault & Turner.

Perrault’s first book, The Ballad of Louis Wagner and other New England Stories in Verse (published in 2003 by Peter Randall Publisher) is now available; it features 10 ballads, five songs and 15 poems. The book comes with a CD and may be ordered on-line from the publisher at www.PERPublisher.com.

A former teacher, Perrault is also a folk singer and has appeared in concerts, singing his ballads, throughout New England. Three of Perrault’s poems are reprinted below. "Palace of Justice" is from Off the Record and appeared originally in Commomwealth. "May Music in New Hampshire" and "All Soul’s Eve" are from The Ballad of Louis Wagner.

Palace of Justice

Learned in the law
he labeled each event
of those days
in accordance with tradition.

The legislative will
thus informed his speech
the crunch of leather in the halls
his conscience.

Dismissing rumors of rooms
below chambers
slippery with blood
he rose from the bench
each afternoon at four
drenched in his robes
never once having looked into
the eyes
of those he condemned.

On his way out
the magnificent doors
women lined in the streets
hailed him
the last hope
for loved ones missing these months
taken in the night
and no word yet.

May Music in New Hampshire

Listen children,
lean close to the earth—

you can hear the young fiddleheads
tuning up,

practicing under the leaves,
minding their clefs,
waiting for the green curtain to rise.

Look how they let my long fingered rake
play over them,
oh so lightly,
so as not to ring their little necks.

See how fresh and eager they appear,
turning to the woodwinds,
focusing the air,

breaking out of root position
to scale the blue light.

All Soul’s Eve

As the mist lifts from the cut swale
the deer slip out of the trees

dropping their shadows to the meadow floor
baring themselves to the moon—

slowly they turn in the pale light
moving in groups of twos, of threes

testing the earth with their silver hooves
their eyes coming toward us.

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