Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Tuesday poem #229 : Aaron Boothby : Sequoia



         Stone the flame cracked     minute    
grain emergent     fire-black     nestled
     in soil’s scorched arenas     Comes
         eruption of form     from implicit
potential of all flesh indefinite     an
     expectation     electric of greens
         varied nations     In divided dualities    
mute abilities     reign in matter’s assent
     without comprehension     Before names
         a kind of alchemy     antecedent
to shadows are the forms of needles
     limbs     pillars vaulting thrust up red
         A taunt of the idea     word’s shiver
violence of nature’s arts     eddies     gusts
     melodies of it making     unmaking
         scent’s pulse     wood’s circulation

What’s not limited by form     defined
     riddled     cursed by what code contains?
         Defiant material shapes itself     not
any I     no One     no accounting after all
     but sinews     utter responsibility
         bound to exhaustion     There’s
no resolution     only perpetuation    
     brushing off loam and needles caught
         while rain fell     bodies left shadows
burned into the damp     echoes of
         a kind of shattering     absence   


Aaron Boothby is a poet from California now living in Montréal. Work has been published in Vallum, Axolotl, Whiskey Island, and other journals while a chapbook titled Reperspirations, Exhalations, Wrapt Inflections was published in 2016 with Anstruther Press. Tweets appear @ellipticalnight and a website can be found at secret-interference.info.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

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