I'm so pleased and honored that “Soledad,” a lyric sequence that I co-authored with Elizabeth Savage, was selected by Elizabeth Robinson as the winning poem for the Thomas Merton Prize in Poetry of the Sacred.
Here's the link to the 21st annual Festival of Faiths taking place now in Louisville, KY. Our poem will be performed later today (time tba): Festival of Faiths
Our sequence will be published in the winter issue of Parabola. Here's a sneak peek:
Here's the link to the 21st annual Festival of Faiths taking place now in Louisville, KY. Our poem will be performed later today (time tba): Festival of Faiths
Our sequence will be published in the winter issue of Parabola. Here's a sneak peek:
Soledad
In which the sun
as bright as an orb
(which it was)
as sparks flew
or spurs
from disappointment’s—
that was all
as she drove listening
lone
survivor
not a song
but a lyric
ran through it
*
When the dead are lost
in the sun—who are you
praying for? once
they blazed a path
once they burned
and the sparks blink
behind in effort
what survives the lyric
some small night
holds wilder nouns
in alien calm
one winter psalm
*
an alien calmness
engulfs an edge
wraps round
the wilder brush
beyond effort’s saving
sparks blind
crush
while stones
like thieves
find the rush
insatiable
and tell lies as lyric’s lost
accomplices
*
accomplices blind
by alien calm
a rap unrushed
a guest that lies
a thief in trust
in hindsight
crushed
if all we strike
breaks to light
*
if all we bend’s
already bent
invisibly
as a node’s nudge
dives down
only to be
caught
in dust
gust
*
bent to tend
low of dusk
sun belies
lyrics rushed
*
this winter song
her lone accomplice
as stars once wished upon
now stare down
on woodland thrush
*
once along sabbath
sun
startling
orb
thrust upon
woodland wished
accomplishment
