Monthly Archives: May 2022

The Wake

It’s not clear
where the river begins 
     where her body ends
watery thoughts     phantoms  
meeting only to part 

a looseness expanding
as stars might deepen—
     one empty breath at a time—
to fill a winter’s sky
ave     ave

it’s not clear     
is it she or the river 
     that pulls me so?

I dip my fingers into her hair
stare into lidded eyes

a dragon lies in the depth of each
it seems to be sleeping
     dormez-vous?    dormez-vous?

a bell is ringing 
dormez-vous?    

Scott Elder lives in France. His work has mostly appeared in the UK and Ireland. A debut pamphlet, Breaking Away, was published by Poetry Salzburg in 2015, his first collection, Part of the Dark, by Dempsey&Windle 2017 (UK), and the second, My Hotel, is forthcoming in Salmon Poetry 2023 (Ireland).   Website: https://www.scottelder.co.uk/

Nocturne


In the beginning there was darkness,

            there was no ray 

and no prism,

           no rainbow

to arch above the clouds,

           there was no water

to veil the earth,

           no splendid sun to blaze,

and no gentle breeze

           to murmur.

In the beginning there was no pain,

           no mother to wail

for her dead son,

           there was no sin

no spirit,

           no father.

There was no apple

           to want,

no tongue

           to lick the nectar,

no desire.

           There was no star

to pierce the night,

           no heaven for angels

to descend from,

                      there was no cross,

no candle,

           no altar.

There was no blue sky,

           no wing to unfurl

and no wind beneath,

           or above.

In the beginning

           there was darkness,

there was silence,

           and love.

 

Shakiba Hashemi is an Iranian-American poet, painter and teacher living in Southern California.  She is a bilingual poet, and writes in English and Farsi. She holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Laguna College of Art and Design. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Atlanta Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Ibbetson Street Magazine, The Indianapolis Review, I-70 Review, Cream City Review, The Summerset Review, Roanoke Review, Collateral and the New York Quarterly Anthology Without a Doubt: poems illuminating faith.