new from above/ground press: snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems, by Kristjana Gunnars

snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems
Kristjana Gunnars
$4

liturgy of hours


a life where every moment has an Office
a duty just for this small measure of time

the placing of an olive-green bowl next
to another olive-green bowl, next to another

zigzagging along a blank acacia-wood table
bells of brass hanging on their strings of jute

legs carved like sawblades, rusted brown

at this moment I will remove the veil
from its pegs on the blind-arched wall

at this moment I will observe the lacework
its intricate anonymity, its seeing disguise

just then I will pour water from the rain-drum
pour into each and every green clay bowl

I will talk about purity and movement
I will say there is no obstruction or barricade

no grid or wall or smoke or misleading words

nothing you can put up to hold me in
       because the hour branches out like a rose

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2016
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kristjana Gunnars is a painter and writer, author of several books of poetry, short fiction and anti-fiction. She is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing and English at the University of Alberta, and now works out of her studio in B.C. Her web connection is: kristjanagunnars.com

[produced, in part, for a series of events at the University of Alberta, March 3-5, 2016, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their writer-in-residence program]

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com