…that I started an MFA program in May of 2015? I’m finding it quite amazing that I’ve not posted since October 2015 despite a very productive writing period. Glad to be working through draft after draft with the talented and generous Zack Rogow. He’s so generous he’s giving away his sage advice on his blog.
So for the sake of bringing some recent work into the light, here’s one from the fall that’s nearing completion.
Rise
Nevermind the stillness— / the deep sleeps to awake.
–Nazim Hikmet from “The Epic of Sheik Bedreddin”
To get out
of the deep, first
go down
work that furious club-tail
through tunnel twists,
down, then up, then out.
Out of the deep-den,
beaver through waking,
through mist music,
light deep like black spruce
down at roots but rising.
Brittle sap floored-forest,
so many needles dropping,
daylight falling but trapped
in drooping night-net.
Rise, emerge,
outside den
and water warp, sight
swarms as translucent eyelids lift
forest and fractured light
come into focus.
Swim beaver, wet still,
become day, walk now,
spit spruce sap, build.
Jonas Lamb 