Issue 4.1
Winter 2024
Morgan Grayce Willow
Reflection
This poem emerged from poetry play in my writing group. We were given a block of words and invited to select words from the random collection of words on the page to jam a poem of our own. We weren’t required to stick to only those words, but rather enticed to use an abundance of those words and allow them to lead the way.
Body. Pigment. Content. Shape.
A porcelain swan tangos,
autumnal, rosy, quiet and sinking,
a weightless lamp, a lure,
its name waiting in the pond
for some root or claw, some loss
to admire like a lover draping a shape,
like willow, obedient as stone,
silence beyond harm
or origin, asleep while the
dull marble crowd flames
its stricken touch
from ache to listen,
from lament to return.
Morgan Grayce Willow’s collections & chapbooks include titles such as Dodge & Scramble, Between, Silk, Oddly Enough, The Maps are Words. Her poems have appeared in Ecopoetics, Queer Voices, Water~Stone Review, Queer Nature, Saint Paul Almanac. She feels honored to have had work in previous issues of Concision Poetry Journal.
Morgan's Book Recommendation
Sharon Suzuki-Martinez, The Loneliest Whale Blues
Deborah Keenan, The Saint of Everything
Joyce Sutphen, That Other Life
Wanda Coleman, Heart First Into This Ruin
Sun Yung Shin, The Wet Hex