by Rochelle Owens
For a thousand years the glacier
expanding outward outward from the walls
of a dead artist’s garden in Tuscany―
a hallucination of an obscure poet
living alone in Angola
writing in Portuguese
‘Green the gardens of Tuscany’
the word ‘avore’ tattooed on her forehead
snow forming ice
the glacier expanding outward outward
moving slowly slowly
lumps of ice tilting twisting
rows of words order of words
‘Green the gardens of Tuscany’
parts of words
the word ‘abandon’ stuck in her throat
lovely the letters like roots
spirals of roots multicellular
slender pliant twigs
lovely the letters like arteries
‘Green the gardens of Tuscany’
interlacing shapes colors wind rivers
blood of her mammalian brain
flowing outward outward
forming pictures of hieroglyphs
a honeycomb candles metal glass
an elephant gothic script
the mouth of a fish
‘Green the gardens of Tuscany’
leather bound books crop dusters
the mass of ice moving downward
the glacier flowing cresting
sound and meaning breaking break
ing rocks and ice
lovely the letters like the spine
of the aardvark bending
‘Green the gardens of Tuscany’
her mammalian brain
expanding outward outward
forming rows of letters
order of letters
parts of words rushing darting
stinging jellyfish
the debris of words from wind and fire
‘Green the gardens of Tuscany’
solid liquid and gas
chunks of stone and iron
the letters cooling gleaming dimming
the word ‘abandon’ stuck in her throat
letters orbiting her head
fusing into words
giant storms of letters spiraling
the glacier expanding outward outward
Rochelle Owens is the author of twenty books of poetry, plays, and fiction, the most recent of which are Solitary Workwoman, (Junction Press, 2011), Journey to Purity (Texture Press, 2009), and Plays by Rochelle Owens (Broadway Play Publishing, 2000). A pioneer in the experimental off-Broadway theatre movement and an internationally known innovative poet, she has received Village Voice Obie awards and honors from the New York Drama Critics Circle. Her plays have been presented worldwide and in festivals in Edinburgh, Avignon, Paris, and Berlin. Her play Futz, which is considered a classic of the American avant-garde theatre, was produced by Ellen Stewart at LaMama, directed by Tom O’Horgan and performed by the LaMama Troupe in 1967, and was made into a film in 1969. A French language production of Three Front was produced by France-Culture and broadcast on Radio France. She has been a participant in the Festival Franco-Anglais de Poésie, and has translated Liliane Atlan’s novel Les passants, The Passersby (Henry Holt, 1989). She has held fellowships from the NEA, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and numerous other foundations. She has taught at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Oklahoma and held residencies at Brown and Southwestern Louisiana State. This is Rochelle Owens'eighteenth New Verse News poem.
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