Christian Anton Gerard
Christian Anton Gerard Moving Toward Psalm
―“and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss”
How can a prayer move forward in a world turning
in circles? But the world isn’t only
turning in circles. It moves also
in elliptical orbit, lilts to one side,
Christian Anton Gerard holding a prayer
book, the weight of psalms at rest. The world
circles he supposes in so many circles–
the universe in space, eye’s iris in evening.
Maybe Christian Anton Gerard’s the earth and
the bodies he knows are other planets,
the sun like a year in a psalm. Christian
Anton Gerard believes all narratives move
like the earth and believes the sun’s a story
constantly telling itself slant. Christian Anton
Gerard needs to look toward the sun, not at.
He does! But he would do well to note
there’s tension in joy; a double-bass’s string
snapped taught against the neck, lips in prayer,
perfect joy and perfect ache for joy and
doesn’t exaltation find us in a field rimmed
by dark as story for story our lovers’ hands
move together telling the one thing that is
everything? Oh world without end! Oh
world in the heart’s adrenaline-filled-atrium!
Oh goodness. Goodness.
Christian Anton Gerard's first book of poems is Wilmot Here, Collect For Stella (WordTech, CW Books imprint, 2014). He has received Pushcart Prize nominations, scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and an Academy of American Poets Prize. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in storySouth, Post Road, Redivider, Pank, Orion, Smartish Pace, B-O-D-Y, The Rumpus, and The Journal. He lives in Fort Smith, AR, with his wife and son, where he's an Assistant Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.
Return to January 2015 Edition
―“and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss”
How can a prayer move forward in a world turning
in circles? But the world isn’t only
turning in circles. It moves also
in elliptical orbit, lilts to one side,
Christian Anton Gerard holding a prayer
book, the weight of psalms at rest. The world
circles he supposes in so many circles–
the universe in space, eye’s iris in evening.
Maybe Christian Anton Gerard’s the earth and
the bodies he knows are other planets,
the sun like a year in a psalm. Christian
Anton Gerard believes all narratives move
like the earth and believes the sun’s a story
constantly telling itself slant. Christian Anton
Gerard needs to look toward the sun, not at.
He does! But he would do well to note
there’s tension in joy; a double-bass’s string
snapped taught against the neck, lips in prayer,
perfect joy and perfect ache for joy and
doesn’t exaltation find us in a field rimmed
by dark as story for story our lovers’ hands
move together telling the one thing that is
everything? Oh world without end! Oh
world in the heart’s adrenaline-filled-atrium!
Oh goodness. Goodness.
Christian Anton Gerard's first book of poems is Wilmot Here, Collect For Stella (WordTech, CW Books imprint, 2014). He has received Pushcart Prize nominations, scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and an Academy of American Poets Prize. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in storySouth, Post Road, Redivider, Pank, Orion, Smartish Pace, B-O-D-Y, The Rumpus, and The Journal. He lives in Fort Smith, AR, with his wife and son, where he's an Assistant Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.
Return to January 2015 Edition