Poetry
Touching The Rock
For John Hull
Aiming the pain
you hurl yourself into
the blindman’s fog
bluff of snow
(slowly you lose your left
shoulder el-
bow) Unfrozen now
breathing shadows flee
the Father-Who-Sees-in-the-Dark
Footfall crows
leaking heart of a clock
Crossing against the light
coal trucks thunder over
Iron Mountain
With a blank look & a white stick
you follow curved 2’s of swans on slate
dead letter of a smile
an unruly line on holiday
In the wild wetness
the everywhereatonceness
of this blessed fall
a voice appears to you
cloaked in the luminous mantle of rain
Gazing upon the face of waters
a hand lifts the veil
from scepter & snai
unwraps its darkly paradoxical gift
Beloved object
wing of morning
shining shining at the end of days
someone sees you
Contributor
L.S. AsekoffAskeoff has published two books of poetry. He directs the MFA Poetry Program at Brooklyn College.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
By Rona LorimerMAY 2022 | Field Notes
The French presidential elections brought what many were dreading, a standoff between what has long been called the “authoritarian liberalism” of Emmanuel Macron and the “avowed fascism” of Marine Le Pen.
Jessica Hopper’s The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
By George GrellaJUL-AUG 2021 | Music
To interpolate an old line about sports, fans hear with their hearts. Hopper is a critic who, like all of us, is originally a fan, and that delineating is often hazy and, in the space of this book, self-contradictory—not in the way that happens to us all, having an opinion about a thing and then later changing our minds, but in terms of values.
Troy Montes-Michie’s Rock of Eye
By Megan N. LibertyFEB 2022 | Art Books
These collages use the multiple interpretations and histories of the stitch to explore masculinity, sexuality, and marginal identities. In a moment when conversations around the policing of Black bodies in public space continue to grow and gain momentum, Montes-Michie’s quiet scenes of interiority dramatically change the context.
five from Provocations
By mónica teresa ortizFEB 2023 | Poetry
mónica teresa ortiz is a poet and interdisciplinary artist born and raised in the rural Panhandle of Texas. mónica has been a visiting researcher with the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research in 2022. Their writing has appeared in Fence, Scalawag, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Hyperallergic, and Split This Rock!, among others.
