Christine Gosnay
As Through a Strain
Light passes sometimes an object
without passing over it;
in this way, so much
is not gotten or forgotten.
The shape of the word again
fits between us in this way,
not waiting or filling,
its weight in the hour’s damp
like a skate’s blade, sunflied
beside the ice’s pause.
What can be taken in the light
presents its face,
what can’t:
the baroque lacewing of a veil.
Songbird
You what says
pretty bright girl,
or
putting breakdown, or
can it take time.
Private sometimes?
You, never.
The rational nature
resists
it
but the heart (the fish)
gives it a bowl
to hit with a stained glass fork.
Christine Gosnay's Even Years (Kent State University Press, 2017) was selected by Angie Estes as the winner of the 2016 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been selected for publication in Poetry, The Poetry Review, The Missouri Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, New Ohio Review, and Third Coast Magazine. Visit her here: www.thewritechristine.com
Return to the November 2017 Edition
Light passes sometimes an object
without passing over it;
in this way, so much
is not gotten or forgotten.
The shape of the word again
fits between us in this way,
not waiting or filling,
its weight in the hour’s damp
like a skate’s blade, sunflied
beside the ice’s pause.
What can be taken in the light
presents its face,
what can’t:
the baroque lacewing of a veil.
Songbird
You what says
pretty bright girl,
or
putting breakdown, or
can it take time.
Private sometimes?
You, never.
The rational nature
resists
it
but the heart (the fish)
gives it a bowl
to hit with a stained glass fork.
Christine Gosnay's Even Years (Kent State University Press, 2017) was selected by Angie Estes as the winner of the 2016 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been selected for publication in Poetry, The Poetry Review, The Missouri Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, New Ohio Review, and Third Coast Magazine. Visit her here: www.thewritechristine.com
Return to the November 2017 Edition