A Portrait of the Night Sky
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- A Portrait of the Night Sky
I am the solitary moonbronzed into blaze,how it hungers to be more than half full.I am the loom where stitchesunlace themselves, the melody of colorin gull cry, the rolling hillof the breaking wave because breakageis greatness. Over and over I am ruinedin the manner of trees stripped of royal foliage,thus turned into skeletons that cannot dance.Hence my skeletal poems. Hence a wishto remember gratitude the way I rememberthe sun even when it hides in a foggy mitten,how it endures as it smolders awayas does the wound, all wounds blackas a portrait of the night sky.One by one they open the way I openmy mouth for the gift of a kiss,many wounds, many kissesall in the tradition and mission of grace,how it sorrows in every tomorrow,how I still grow like a stubborn rosejust to go up in smoke. [End Page 101]
Elizabeth Kirschner has published five volumes of poetry, most recently, Surrender to Light (Cherry Grove Collections, 2009) and My Life as a Doll (Autumn House Press, 2008). She has collaborated with many composers, with her poems appearing on three CDs including The Revelations of Divine Love by Carson Cooman, which has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Kittery Point, ME.
