MORE POWERFULLY
|
Me, in my wisdom; you, in yours — Ok, fine.
Humility aside, I realize, with a flicker. Beautiful winter evening sky. I tell you so. How will it all work out? My resilience exhausts me. Listen, trees, I’m talking too. For once, I’d like to be careless and lucky. For a minute I hate you; always I want to protect you. Anyone can make anything exist, they say. Why can’t I? A girl in a book... No —. Fuck that for that once. No one’s ever done it before, but I’m brave: I invite you in. I do it again. Again. I take a big walk while you decide. |
|
A BRave Face
Waking in the night is hard. All feels measured and poured.
Some low feelings have steep sides; what am I good for, to you?
From above we can see where the river turned back to keep going.
Does it matter at all what we want? Fallen leaves look fine awhile.
I’d like boots that brown; a blue coat. Used to be, a woman might dress
to go away, boarding a train maybe, alone, or, possibly, with a man.
Some low feelings have steep sides; what am I good for, to you?
From above we can see where the river turned back to keep going.
Does it matter at all what we want? Fallen leaves look fine awhile.
I’d like boots that brown; a blue coat. Used to be, a woman might dress
to go away, boarding a train maybe, alone, or, possibly, with a man.
Mary Ann Samyn is the author of six books, including Air, Light, Dust, Shadow, Distance, winner of the 2017 42 Miles Press Poetry Award. She teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia University.
Carolyn Benedict Fraser is a Lecturer in Photography at Ithaca College. Her work utilizes the constraints of the camera, the frame, and vision to address the ways in which we orient ourselves to mental and physical limitations. She studied psychology and photography at Mills College and received an MFA in Visual Art from Cornell University. Fraser spoke at the 2017 Northeast Chapter SPE Conference, Is Photography Enough?: Interdisciplinary Approaches Beyond the Still Image. Recently her work has been exhibited in New York City, San Francisco, and Brattleboro, Vermont, and was included in the Humble Arts Foundation of New York exhibition, On Beauty. Her website is www.carolynbenedict.com.