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States of Poetry Poems
Itch in the vein, the road hot still
from sun, an asphalt stream
bisecting unlit houses. Slip of an alley
cat through a spittle of starlight.
Last cigarette, the way Em curls
her yellow fingers into small mouthed
sweater sleeves.
Clock tower bites light through the empty
parking lot. Gates we broke apart last summer, same
time I lost the laces ...
Invasion Day
My thighs are cold in the crevice
where the Coke can rested
as I drove. By the mailboxes
the ginger guy is staring ...
Dot by dot, the backs
of eyelids. Draw it slowly,
shape of sentimental spine.
You curve that way.
I breathe the countdown
& the world falls, air by air.
In the white room you cloud
over bedsheets,
unsettled weather, & no electric
light will dare illuminate.
Your skin tastes clean sky,
polished gray. That clarity,
sharp ...
from the Tibetan meaning 'to build' or 'to construct'
I.
In 1992, Alice made a Tulpa.
Carry an amulet. Kiss its three sharp corners. Shine.
It began subjective, but with practice could be seen: imagined ghost that flickered in the physical world, a sort of self-
induced hallucination.
Recall the chalk clouds. Recall the scent of ...
States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘At the house where my father was born’ by Carolyn Abbs
'It hurts to go through walls, it makes you sick,
but it's necessary.' − Tomas Tranströmer
I'd expected a labyrinth of small dark rooms, yet
the house was lit marigold scooped out like a pumpkin for Halloween
Flames flickered and spat in a wide fireplace
&nbs ...
(found in rubble beneath a church — New Norcia)
Distempered walls crowd in cold at the old
schoolroom, resonant with the chant of times
tables, scrape of chalk on slate; a nun might
have leant over a child, white dust on her cuff.
This afternoon, light from a slit window catches
a silver crucifix and reflects onto the dome
of glass cabinet, li ...
Tenement Building (black & white photograph)
Chris Kilip, Tate Britain, 2014
you view the house from across the street
part of a terrace it fills the frame
the roof is cut off no sky dim light
upstairs a balcony
After you died, Nana, I went to your room,
it was dark like that place beneath the breakwater
where barnacles cling and children never dare hide
I opened a blind, a stuck window, breeze fanned
and fanned the room, light across your dressing-
table, triple mirrors. Amidst perfume bottles,
hairbrush, amber beads, your art deco box,
walnut with inlaid mothe ...
States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Tulips in Black and White’ by Carolyn Abbs
Sadness overwhelms me in this circle of cut
flowers; some face me, plead for help, but if
I were to cradle one tulip-heavy head in my palm
like a premature baby, would its petals (that remind
me of my mother's skin when she was old) fall
to the floor? Others turn away in a dried blush
of shame. Just a few plump bodies flaunt sheen
on velvet cloaks, ye ...
I love the whole world
she said,
without sounding
corporate
(Agnes Martin
said it) ...