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With Samson’s Strength In Mind
I bow to my altar of scars, white as lion bones on my arms, each an icon to violence which first stirred in me when schoolgirls taunted my odd physical strength. I could heft an ax, split oak easily as twigs. The girls cast stones at the seashore. I mortared them into a pillar. With […]
Lamed: Ox Herding Lesson
Ox Goad What did you expect? Accolades? Laurels without thorns? To have come this far…. To have grasped God’s hand….. Be wary when your burden lightens. Your heart is wrestling an ox in a muddy feedlot with an open gate! He doesn’t move. You prod him with spurs. He swishes flies, bellows, backs away. Come […]
Tet: How The Two Become One
How The Two Become One Jacob wrestled wind howling inside him until it returned his brother’s face, as when wind shakes the leaves after a brief summer rain to prolong its sweetness and startle the trees into thinking they’re clouds. Face to Face Alone, I waited on the river bank for you alone, having sent […]
Yud: The Hand of God
Handiwork At dawn God opens one hand to let cramped darkness flee. All night clouds of glory float beyond reach of dreams, beyond a prayer book and a clock which waits with you until dawn to help you wrestle the dark back into God’s other hand. Hand of God They scratched Your Names on wooden […]
Emily Warn Q&A on three of her poems
Emily Warn author of three collections of poetry, including Shadow Architect (Copper Canyon Press, 2008., explains the three sections of her poems, "Lamed: Ox Herding Lesson"; "Tet: How the Two Became One"; and "Yud: The Hand of God"; from that book.
The Pedestal
In hindsight this could be when it started Stumbling: smile. Embarrassed late October jog. Patient has no family history of this kind of problem She is a rebel in this illness business. MRIs done in 96 and 97 and the doctors found no lesions did not think Remember? Whirl of light there just beyond your […]
Theft
Imagine the sadness of wanting something for yourself so badly you would steal it, take it from someone someone you love — dignity for example.