After Reading a Poem Titled “The Entrance to Purgatory” by Iain Lonie
The architecture of isolation is something about air around everything, the way light encircles the first daffodils, encourages their singular golden opening with a bit of space between each of them on their hollow stems. The architecture of waiting is something about dropping down like a tap root, how to trust the deeper water, earth’s dark heartbeat, how to trust time as if it comes from a god who offers Purgatory as a resting place, a take-your-shoes-off-and-lie-down place while mistakes, oversights, sins, ordinary trouble can be sorted out elsewhere. And the architecture of forgiveness is the house with the soft bed where you rest for a time, safe. And alone.
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Lisa Zimmerman’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Florida Review, Poet Lore, Chiron Review, Trampset, Amethyst Review, SWWIM Every Day and other journals. Her first book won the Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award. Other collections include The Light at the Edge of Everything (Anhinga Press) and The Hours I Keep (Main Street Rag).
