Al-Khemia Poetica: A Women's Arts and Writing Journal: alchemy

Showing posts with label alchemy. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Zabrisky and Rogghe's GREEN LIONS

Is love an alchemical process?
Is it successful, and is it art?
Is poetic collaboration a good idea?

The answer to the first question is “yes.”

The answer to the second question are a bit more complicated. Love changes us, irrevocably, and most often times, not for the better, or that’s what the modern world would have us believe. The answers to the second question, at least, poetically speaking, are revealed in Green Lions (© 2014 Numina Press), a collaboration of love poems by Zarina Zabrisky and Simon Rogghe.

Green Lions employs the alchemical elements; water, fire, air, earth, and ether (or spirit), and the Major Arcana from the Tarot, to tell the story of two people who fall in love, where the process takes, and how it changes them. The voices of Zabrisky and Rogghe start off, predictably, as diverse as two people can be, with Zabrisky as the dominant voice, and Rogghe gentlemanly following in her wake. But as these two talented poets work their way into intimacy, and as the process of poetic courtship progresses, they enter into each other’s hearts and minds, and,the writing becomes much more unified in tone and language, as in the poem ‘Equestrian Seduction Duet” (This is Not a Poem About Horses)”:

I would like to know

how does it feel

on your fingertips

when you touch them

on the neck.

warm? soft?

scratchy?

do your fingertips tingle

with warmth afterwards?

would mine?

if you touch a brown horse

would your fingertips glow

with soft brown light?

Their skin is soft

Their neck is hard -

Running your fingers

Through a horse’s crest

Covers them with a sticky coat

You can roll in little clusters.

In the texture of reality.

The elbow grease of beauty,

The imprint of a friendship.

if you kiss a horse

between the eyes

do your lips feel salty?

To kiss a horse

Between the eyes

Is very much like

When you kiss a woman:

It may well turn its head

If it isn’t in the mood.

A horse kiss, rather,

is a gentle bite, a scratch.

But when your lips

Have grazed the surface

Of a horse’s face,

They know

A different kind of music:

I’ve kissed a horse

And tasted sweat

When riding in the desert;

One time

There was a pouring rain -

My lips seemed

To be stained with tears;

Another time

It was the dead of winter -

My mouth crackled

With the electricity

Of warm skin and dry air.

I want to know more.

tell me,

are horses

lonely creatures -

like people -

like islands -

like cities -

like lovers -

Sometimes a horse can’t eat

Because of mourning,

Just like we can’t

When we’re stressed out -

Maybe in love -

Do they

know how to be true friends?

Their conduct is impeccable:

Treat them right

And they will do the same.

Coupled with the simple, lyrical poems are Zabrisky’s lovely black and white illustrations, which nicely compliment the poetic discourse.

The answer to the third question is subjective in nature, but based on my personal experience, I’ve not read a collaborative work that came together so well as Green Lions, especially one that is so easy and profound to fall into, and is both unforgettable and entertaining.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Larry Colker's Amnesia and Wings

O misbegotten fool

in pool of inklings

things cannot be clear... - “Lyric”/Amnesia and Wings

Above is a gorgeous snippet of poetry from Larry Colker’s debut collection, Amnesia and Wings (© 2013 Tebot Bach Press). Most first collections are heavily laden with verse. To be honest, this handicap can turn off a reader to a poet’s future work. The opposite is true with Colker’s collection: 32 poems bound into one slim volume - which, in point of fact, turns out to be the perfect amount of poetry.

Colker, a careful bard, writes with the artful restraint of a man who's lived most of his life walking a fine line between the mundane and waking worlds. Like an alchemist, Colker has distilled his life experiences (mostly about love, and up to this point), into a series of beautifully written poems that are a genuine pleasure for the reader in which to immerse herself. Colker’s not afraid of linguistic gymnastics; quite a few of his poems could be put down to workshop exercises, but a touch of self-deprecating humor saves the day, as in the piece “Lunch Poem”:

Today I’m eating Brazilian,

three kinds of meat on a

skewer.

Big knife!

The woman I nearly started an affair with

was - is -

Brazilian.

Big knife!

She tasted like this fried banana,

sugary, fragrant, yielding,

slick.

Big knife!

I tried to give my marriage another chance;

kissed artistic, sexy, portugues-inflected Amalia

good-bye.

Big knife!

While the theme of love dominates Amnesia and Wings, Colker also explores other avenues; family (“Projector”), mythical archetypes (“Eros in the Heartland,” “Legend”), and the growing sense of one’s own morality (“China,” “Crossing Over (Exhibit #204)”). Though Colker is careful, he's not sparing of himself or his subjects. Each poem is bracketed by the conviction of a man who has no qualms in sharing and accepting the variegated, truthful totality of a fascinating and well-lived life. Few contemporary poets are capable of making that commitment to themselves or to their work.

Amnesia and Wings deserves a place on every poet’s bookshelf.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Review of Peggy Dobreer's "in the lake of your bones"

I've read, published, and listened to Peggy Dobreer's poems for over ten years. Her first collection, in the lake of your bones (copyright 2012 Moon Tide Press), offers readers a first-class opportunity to explore the ephemeral elegance of both the poet and her work.

lake is divided into three sections: “in the silt,” which presents her more concrete, narrative poems; “in the marrow,” which draws the reader into deeper aspects of love and desire, central themes of Dobreer's work; and, “in the water,” with poems, like a series of lovely pebbles, skip across the surface of one's mind to gently sink, and then germinate in the unconscious.

At first, the poems appear top-heavy, loaded with mercurial rhythms (Dobreer has a background in dance and experimental theater), contemporary language, and mythical imagery. But - this is where Dobreer shines. With the right amount of restraint, she keeps the work timeless, a difficult task for most post-modern poets who prefer to confess instead of extoll. The poems remain fresh and vital, as well a genuine pleasure to experience, as in the poem, “First Love”:

The rhythm of my blood
beats along the river of my being.

The joy of motion lifts my leg

and tosses it into the air,

follows the sensation of each foot
on the ground. Gravities embrace.

Tears must roll down cheeks
for spirits to lift again. And arms,

they are lifted into gesture. Look!
It's Lord Shiva swaying to the spin

of Earth on her axis. Rise up. Hear
voices of angels. Rise up. Set yourself free.

Feel sun on your face and wind at your heels.
Know that when you hold your lover in grass

at dawn, you can gaze into the soil, hear fossils
breathe. Here is the now and forever. Here

is the falling into grace. Here is the rapture of
a poem as it moves across my face.

According to academics, there are poetry schools/movements (Imagists, Beats, New Formalists, etc.). Dobreer belongs to the most successful school; the Alchemists. Poetry, as I have often said, is an alchemical process. With in the lake of your bones, Dobreer has given the world a philosopher's stone.

Note: Dobreer will be reading/signing on the following dates: Sunday, April 10, at 7:30 pm., with Eric Morago at Skylight Books (1818 n. Vermont Ave, L.A., 90027); Sunday, April 29, at 4 pm at the G2 Gallery (1503 Abbot Kinney, Venice) with Mariano Zaro, Sarah Maclay, and Brendan Constantine.)