My friend Cliff Brooks heard this excellent poet read recently and wrote about it on his Facebook page.
Jennifer Avery is a native of Calhoun, Georgia, who has been writing since she was twelve years old. She writes concise, heart-felt poetry and prose that combines simple eloquence with a sophisticated Southern accent. Recently, five of her poems were published in Issue 4.5 of the Ishaan Literary Review, and her poem "Carcass of Experience" was selected as poem of the week (July 28, 2014) by One Creative Choice. She is also in the process of developing Glossary Notes, a comprehensive set of reading guides.
Heartsong Euphony
The mind races between
notes on the scale of time
speeding up.
Eighth and sixteenths
Never could keep up.
Left behind, tangled in some meaning
tied to every infant note.
The song too often escapes
Left behind with the faint echo
of euphonious beauty
whose nature lies in notes
tied together.
Fates sing cutting strings.
Howls fiercely pierce
the song of order.
There must be a reason
A tie loosed with a stray sharp
out of nowhere
heard everywhere.
The song lost
Mind confused
Existence muffled by cacophony.
Cacophony of mindsong
Is heartsong's crescendo.
Creation of Everything
Black still water
Infinite sky
forever ocean.
Only we comprehend
the nature of everything.
Between expanse and expanse
we exist and are everything.
The shell-shocked core
of one half of everything
opens to stars not half so bright.
In a violence of color
it decimates its cage
spreads its arms
to spin into vast bliss
where all is possible
and what was will never be again.
Smaller, paler
the other half of everything
smiles into fiery excitement,
flings itself into an embrace to end them all
Pulling and being pulled,
welcomed into the creation of everything.
Cold Gentleman
Like a molten statue,
he slowly scrapes along.
Swords brandished upon the earth
to cleanse her soft sins.
She is resilient
and pure.
The cold gentleman strolls
unyielding to the sea.
Earth pays her scarred respect.
photo by Tim Doyle