I have recently had an essay, ‘Paint and Poems: The Aggregate Life’, included in this wonderful book of craft essays: ” It explores how a polymathic approach can nourish poetic practice.
Cover artwork by Sophie Herxheimer
Poetry Projects to Make and Do, edited by Deborah Alma, The Emergency Poet, is a ‘how to’ handbook of essays, prompts, advice, and ideas designed to help both aspiring and established poets find new ways not only to create new poetry, but to share andtake it out into the world through collaboration, projects, performances – and more.” It is available from Nine Arches Press here.
I also have some experimental work in the latest edition of Modron Magazine, which can be explored here.
Specular Poem #1 Choose
Specular Poem # 2 There is Blood
Specular Poem # 2 There is Blood (Text)
There is blood / inside my body / pounding against the bone /
pushing against the skinned egg of my head /
I thought about the sun / how it can heal the depression right out of a terrible day /
how eventually, in millions or maybe thousands or maybe hundreds
of years, it is going to kill everything /
I thought about how the endless sun and hot belts of rain
made the grass impossible rich and green / it was false grass /
false enough to kill the horse that fed so hungrily upon it /
the exact food designed to keep it alive
will now make that horse eat itself to death /
the sky will continue being the sky / it will cry upon us /
one day there will be too much water / human beings will scratch and fight /
cut one another down / if only they can be the ones that are left
on the last available patches of dry ground /
I do not know how to be around you anymore / perhaps I never did /
what use is any action any human being can do? /
If I was a tree I would know how to hold on to the land /
I have given up trying to hold your hand / I wish I could fall from the edge of the Earth /
I would only be one inconsequential loss /
I would only be one inconsequential loss /
I wish I could fall from the edge of the Earth / I have given up trying to hold your hand /
If I was a tree I would know how to hold on to the land /
what use is any action any human being can do? /
perhaps I never did / I do not know how to be around you anymore /
if only they can be the ones that are left
on the last available patches of dry ground / cut one another down /
human beings will scratch and fight / one day there will be too much water /
it will cry upon us / the sky will continue being the sky /
the exact food designed to keep it alive
will now make that horse eat itself to death /
false enough to kill the horse that fed so hungrily upon it /
it was false grass / I thought about how the endless sun and hot belts of rain
made the grass impossible rich and green /
how eventually, in millions or maybe thousands or maybe hundreds
of years, it is going to kill everything /
how it can heal the depression right out of a terrible day / I thought about the sun /
pushing against the skinned egg of my head /
pounding against the bone / inside my body / there is blood /
The Night of the Spider Bite (Expressed Using Neurographic Art)
Jane Burn Poet & Artist 