Issue 2.2
Summer 2022
George Farrah &
Heidi Farrah
Reflection
Within the lines--
full of
momentum and
hesitation--
like a perceptual
stuttering--
hope and fear
competing
We like Lyn Hejinian's notion
of perceptional unfolding as rhythm.
"The tension set up by the coexistence of beginning and end
at each point [of the line] excites the dynamics of the work, and this tension
is vital to my thinking within it."
2.
pavers. a book
thread rope
a maze. memory
shift letters
clouds on these arched
buildings. sanction
and sanctuary
a moment
among 22 paces to your
smile I await
holding these
readers and speakers
touchers dreamers
do not die
5.
to be brave. a rock open
frame as imposition
when all words curl
feet sun hands rain
speaking. speaking
skins is my glass or
then it is my world
a small hope
through days of nails gleaming
is enough. we came
to ourselves
fading into each other
over the river
holding these thoughts
and all the silk eyes
of your palm
George J. Farrah holds an MFA from Bard College, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, NY. He is the author of three full-length books of poetry, The Low Pouring Stars (Ravenna Press); Swans Through The House (Moria Books); and Relieved Of Their Whispers (Ravenna). He has also published a pamphlet, Insomniac Plum (Ravenna); a chapbook, Walking as a Wrinkle (Moria Books/Locofo Chaps.); is part of an anthology, This Space for Correspondence (Ravenna); and has drawings in Tripple No. 10 (Ravenna), with writings by Bethany Reid and Jayne Marek.
Heidi A. Howell has published poetry in literary magazines including SHANTIH, s/word, Psychic Meatloaf, The Eastern Iowa Review, Otoliths, la fovea, What Light, So To Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language and Art, and The Washington Review, which nominated her work for a Pushcart. She holds an MFA from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
George and Heidi's Book Recommendations
These poems are influenced by Basil Bunting's Brigg Flatts—short pithy musical lines—and Elizabeth Willis' New and Selected Poems—in both these writers, music of the word and line is paramount to the meaning of the poems.
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They are also in response to the negative capability/uncertainty/doubts accepted in the poems we are feeling/reading in Rilke's Book of Hours and Frank Stafford's The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You.