Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 60
May 2, 2022
On Foot
DIANE THIEL
On foot, I had to cross the galaxy. / I left without luggage or gear, knowing / nothing I had would be of use out there. / It felt long, but I can’t say quite how long. / Time unfolds in space, and I soon realized /
this wasn’t the average pilgrimage.
On foot, I had to cross the galaxy. / I left without luggage or gear, knowing / nothing I had would be of use out there. / It felt long, but I can’t say quite how long. / Time unfolds in space, and I soon realized /
this wasn’t the average pilgrimage.
Landscape with Cheetah Going Seventy in the Serengeti
DAVID HERNANDEZ
That’s what that russet brushstroke is / below the skyline—her spots / lost in the open plains. That’s hunger / that blurs her. We cannot see / what she is chasing, but we can / imagine it. Zebra. Gazelle. Impala. / Antelope.
That’s what that russet brushstroke is / below the skyline—her spots / lost in the open plains. That’s hunger / that blurs her. We cannot see / what she is chasing, but we can / imagine it. Zebra. Gazelle. Impala. / Antelope.
Mosaic School
JOHN POCH
The youngest deconstructionists among us / are proud at first to spend their days breaking up / great slabs of fired tile every shade of wine / while the masters climb the scaffolds / with their gold pride, their gilt, reaching for / a sandal buckle or the heights of a halo.
The youngest deconstructionists among us / are proud at first to spend their days breaking up / great slabs of fired tile every shade of wine / while the masters climb the scaffolds / with their gold pride, their gilt, reaching for / a sandal buckle or the heights of a halo.
In Which Raging Weather is a Gift
ELLEN DORÉ WATSON
I could use / some music to muffle the barely audible /
visitor, but I’m low on batteries and despite the wine/ sweating and losing its cool, it’s my eyes/ the candlelight has me havinga row of fat-wicked / flames doing the hula.
I could use / some music to muffle the barely audible /
visitor, but I’m low on batteries and despite the wine/ sweating and losing its cool, it’s my eyes/ the candlelight has me havinga row of fat-wicked / flames doing the hula.
Pastoral
MICHAEL DUMANIS
I was excited to see every sanctuary, / jaguar, then sloth. / The bright fluted flowers taller than any / in central New Jersey / welcomed me along the periphery / of the dusty byway. / I spotted a kinkajou loping /
over a telephone wire...
I was excited to see every sanctuary, / jaguar, then sloth. / The bright fluted flowers taller than any / in central New Jersey / welcomed me along the periphery / of the dusty byway. / I spotted a kinkajou loping /
over a telephone wire...
Corn and Turns
LAUREN CAMP
if I see and forget field thick over field, the stalks / cut against green—how will I fetch forth the half-dead / memory of the 6 train stuffing its way into the Bronx, as it rolled the same /
every day over the florist and the florist’s locked gate, over //
the circle of urban dirt and suits, and my father emerging /
from the chaos at six-eleven pm?
if I see and forget field thick over field, the stalks / cut against green—how will I fetch forth the half-dead / memory of the 6 train stuffing its way into the Bronx, as it rolled the same /
every day over the florist and the florist’s locked gate, over //
the circle of urban dirt and suits, and my father emerging /
from the chaos at six-eleven pm?
Day Trip
IZZAT AL-GHAZZAWI
The women gathered to shower Om Saber with congratulations, tears of joy burst open the heavy years of silence, the young men danced, and Saber rode his white horse confident and smiling, the house behind him trembling with the voices of the little ones whose time was still to come.
The women gathered to shower Om Saber with congratulations, tears of joy burst open the heavy years of silence, the young men danced, and Saber rode his white horse confident and smiling, the house behind him trembling with the voices of the little ones whose time was still to come.
April 28, 2022
April 2022 Poetry Feature
DAVID LEHMAN
The man wears a pinstripe suit with peaked lapels and pleats in his pants, the woman a collarless jacket and black leather gloves, with a single flower behind her left ear or a yellow bonnet with a dark brown band on her head. The question is what they should do with the stolen money.
The man wears a pinstripe suit with peaked lapels and pleats in his pants, the woman a collarless jacket and black leather gloves, with a single flower behind her left ear or a yellow bonnet with a dark brown band on her head. The question is what they should do with the stolen money.
April 26, 2022
The Common Young Writers Program Opens Applications for Summer 2022
Applications are now open for The Common Young Writers Program, which offers two two-week summer classes for high school students (rising 9-12). Students will be introduced to the building blocks of fiction and learn to read with a writer's gaze.
April 25, 2022
Breaking the Rules of Time Travel: A Film Review of Celine Sciamma’s Petite Maman
HANNAH GERSEN
In Petite Maman, eight-year-old Nelly stumbles into a kind of woodland passageway through which she can visit her mother’s childhood and play with her mother as an eight-year-old girl. In this alternate reality, Nelly also interacts with her maternal grandmother who, in Nelly’s present-day timeline, has recently passed away.
In Petite Maman, eight-year-old Nelly stumbles into a kind of woodland passageway through which she can visit her mother’s childhood and play with her mother as an eight-year-old girl. In this alternate reality, Nelly also interacts with her maternal grandmother who, in Nelly’s present-day timeline, has recently passed away.
