Janet R. Kirchheimer & Jaclyn Piudik
Demure Origins
Vital memory eliminates timeshare of earth’s decision,
a sheave of mist rises as bark, petrichor, lemonflower
usher spark into seed: a rash altruism of hearkening, a seething
contradiction, fracture of ocean into grass as mercy from conversation.
The weaver disperses herbs, constellations whisper growth,
and music preserves textual vowels; intonations explore
tousled heavens and descend to sever mystery, move fescue
to leaf, etchings of pristine vetiver boughed to reveal up-crowded turf
ravenous for broken moisture, slush. Anointed seedlings
trample vines as foxes break through barriers of threes.
Division lights a path among thorns and lilies.
Radical rationing of time flourishes among orbs.
Sight to be moored, ribboned in firmament’s bark,
deliberates being – between hail and hallelujah,
luster and mundanity – ulcerating the grammar of years.
A vault eclipses bdellium, elides with evidence of
consensus and suppression, reverberates in pristine wasteland,
retries enmity, primordial to destruction and disclosure.
Casual in its praise and law, uprooted principles fragment,
and elemental compositions moon-blur as stellar disagreement
arises to negotiate amidst cubits of infinitesimal liquid notes;
intonations followed by letters undulate across interstices.
awaiting ascension: a test of shining. Humors impend,
bedecked as diglossia for attendant light, memorizing
greatness and minutia, gilding and stain, cosmos and cross breeze.
Carved and weighted forces enliven the foundation
of dominance, the transposition of seed is desolation bound
in its giving of back-lit pleasure into practice.
A model of motion, an allegorical burn, balletic – as a prism
of benign refraction ordains shadow into keepsake.
The howling mire, written in borrowed skies, cradles
praxis, appellations indelible, to sow the highest alchemy.
Vital memory eliminates timeshare of earth’s decision,
a sheave of mist rises as bark, petrichor, lemonflower
usher spark into seed: a rash altruism of hearkening, a seething
contradiction, fracture of ocean into grass as mercy from conversation.
The weaver disperses herbs, constellations whisper growth,
and music preserves textual vowels; intonations explore
tousled heavens and descend to sever mystery, move fescue
to leaf, etchings of pristine vetiver boughed to reveal up-crowded turf
ravenous for broken moisture, slush. Anointed seedlings
trample vines as foxes break through barriers of threes.
Division lights a path among thorns and lilies.
Radical rationing of time flourishes among orbs.
Sight to be moored, ribboned in firmament’s bark,
deliberates being – between hail and hallelujah,
luster and mundanity – ulcerating the grammar of years.
A vault eclipses bdellium, elides with evidence of
consensus and suppression, reverberates in pristine wasteland,
retries enmity, primordial to destruction and disclosure.
Casual in its praise and law, uprooted principles fragment,
and elemental compositions moon-blur as stellar disagreement
arises to negotiate amidst cubits of infinitesimal liquid notes;
intonations followed by letters undulate across interstices.
awaiting ascension: a test of shining. Humors impend,
bedecked as diglossia for attendant light, memorizing
greatness and minutia, gilding and stain, cosmos and cross breeze.
Carved and weighted forces enliven the foundation
of dominance, the transposition of seed is desolation bound
in its giving of back-lit pleasure into practice.
A model of motion, an allegorical burn, balletic – as a prism
of benign refraction ordains shadow into keepsake.
The howling mire, written in borrowed skies, cradles
praxis, appellations indelible, to sow the highest alchemy.
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Janet R. Kirchheimer is the author of How to Spot One of Us, (Clal, 2007). Her work has appeared in several journals including Atlanta Review, Potomac Review, Limestone, Connecticut Review, Kalliope, Common Ground Review, as well as many websites. Currently, she is producing a poetry film entitled, After. Janet was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, was a semi-finalist in the “Discovery”/The Nation contest, a finalist in the Rachel Wetzsteon Prize from the 92nd St. Y, and received honorable mention in the String Poet Prize. She teaches a creative writing class for seniors in Manhattan.
Jaclyn Piudik has authored two chapbooks, Of Gazelles Unheard (Beautiful Outlaw, 2013) and The Tao of Loathliness (fooliar press, 2005/8). Her poems have appeared in anthologies and journals across North America, including Columbia Poetry Review, Barrow Street, and The New Quarterly. She received a New York Times Fellowship for Creative Writing and the Alice M. Sellers Award from the Academy of American Poets. Jaclyn holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York and a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from the University of Toronto. Her first full-length collection, To Suture What Frays is currently under review.