The Fissured Tongue Series
Two poems
Danielle Ferrara
Danielle Ferrara
Untitled #10 by Lisa Berley, mixed media, 12 x 12 in., 2010
|
From meconium
Only when the door appears do floors mutate.
At first there
were only the windows, changing landscapes so that I
would not remember any of them.
Despite my dreams I had felt
safe.
Many die from overwhelm, I thought.
Her eyes are lost as moon. I say, Your skin. The words fall like
leaf. I dream of invisible objects pulling
pores apart. Her
fingers crook. It is for you. Did the stolen collapse, or was
it destroyed? There is the heart of wood
ready to burn and warm me. I am
reminded of
landscapes that change so fast
I
cannot remember
them
I decide to
stay
I am among graves. I can no
longer hear her
voice. Would if I were
a voice she could hear. Each day begins to
feel less real, duller. I know her memories fill me
when I
sleep. When I
finally begin
to wander among roots,
loss feels
conceivable. Mouths and cheeks fill with salt. I take that which
is not fruit and bury
it in soil.
Absence is itself.
The future colors space, it is hardly a way.
A rocking of a body is a symbol. All is smoke, each
mistake, pasts woven of scaled rot. The math
disappears.
Among others, it is a fragment, a world. The foot swerves out
of
the road. The water sends heat
into mist. She thinks she is
complete orbiting back, but more likely the orbit is gone.
In dreams she may have warmed a spot
with contact but no longer does
she sleep.
She cries over dust as it breaks in her
fingers and smokes as ash. She drifts in a library of the mind,
unable to sit,
a plateau of the wind has seeped out, past, or
beyond.
Someone stares at her with their watch.
She opens a
book, cannot read, mask too wide. A fairy
tale, and she bloated. Poem a foot. Poem an
ear, poem daemon, poem a flame. And we’ll play together.
And we'll see each other. That's how far we’ve gone
And she laughs back. And the
morphing
a freeze. A watching. A sentencing,
ability.
Watch it grow
this elemental cartoon.
Only when the door appears do floors mutate.
At first there
were only the windows, changing landscapes so that I
would not remember any of them.
Despite my dreams I had felt
safe.
Many die from overwhelm, I thought.
Her eyes are lost as moon. I say, Your skin. The words fall like
leaf. I dream of invisible objects pulling
pores apart. Her
fingers crook. It is for you. Did the stolen collapse, or was
it destroyed? There is the heart of wood
ready to burn and warm me. I am
reminded of
landscapes that change so fast
I
cannot remember
them
I decide to
stay
I am among graves. I can no
longer hear her
voice. Would if I were
a voice she could hear. Each day begins to
feel less real, duller. I know her memories fill me
when I
sleep. When I
finally begin
to wander among roots,
loss feels
conceivable. Mouths and cheeks fill with salt. I take that which
is not fruit and bury
it in soil.
Absence is itself.
The future colors space, it is hardly a way.
A rocking of a body is a symbol. All is smoke, each
mistake, pasts woven of scaled rot. The math
disappears.
Among others, it is a fragment, a world. The foot swerves out
of
the road. The water sends heat
into mist. She thinks she is
complete orbiting back, but more likely the orbit is gone.
In dreams she may have warmed a spot
with contact but no longer does
she sleep.
She cries over dust as it breaks in her
fingers and smokes as ash. She drifts in a library of the mind,
unable to sit,
a plateau of the wind has seeped out, past, or
beyond.
Someone stares at her with their watch.
She opens a
book, cannot read, mask too wide. A fairy
tale, and she bloated. Poem a foot. Poem an
ear, poem daemon, poem a flame. And we’ll play together.
And we'll see each other. That's how far we’ve gone
And she laughs back. And the
morphing
a freeze. A watching. A sentencing,
ability.
Watch it grow
this elemental cartoon.
From matherial
gull flowers
ful fae
la rein e
men fa
quen fa
fe fe
la rein
ful fae
la rein e
men fa
quen fa
fe fe
la rein
About the Author
Dani Ferrara (co-founder, Nocturne School of Lucid Writing) is a student of the self-healing imaginal. From quantum philosophy to trance, shadow and sound, her poetics embrace the experimental and eclectic. She received her MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. Her work has been featured in Black Sun Lit’s *Vestiges*, Dream Pop Press, and ARTEIDOLIA’s swifts & slows, among others.
About the Work
"Like much of my work, these poems are fragments of false memories. Hoping to break up my brain's own memories and make room for the new, I surrender to their sound and feeling."
Dani Ferrara (co-founder, Nocturne School of Lucid Writing) is a student of the self-healing imaginal. From quantum philosophy to trance, shadow and sound, her poetics embrace the experimental and eclectic. She received her MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. Her work has been featured in Black Sun Lit’s *Vestiges*, Dream Pop Press, and ARTEIDOLIA’s swifts & slows, among others.
About the Work
"Like much of my work, these poems are fragments of false memories. Hoping to break up my brain's own memories and make room for the new, I surrender to their sound and feeling."
About the Artist
Lisa Berley began her career in San Francisco as an art director in CGI and animation after receiving her BFA. She integrated painting, photography and CGI in digital work. Returning to NY for two decades Berley exhibited abstract mixed media works on paper. She moved to Colorado in 2016 continuing to work from deconstructed found images and recently combining it with erasure poetry after the accidental death of her younger son.
Artist Statement
"My work involves a process of exploring the deconstruction of found words and images.
Fragments of appropriated newsprint images are deconstructed and then reconstructed to make new images and in some cases erasure poems. Through this method the visual and text information is transformed."
Lisa Berley began her career in San Francisco as an art director in CGI and animation after receiving her BFA. She integrated painting, photography and CGI in digital work. Returning to NY for two decades Berley exhibited abstract mixed media works on paper. She moved to Colorado in 2016 continuing to work from deconstructed found images and recently combining it with erasure poetry after the accidental death of her younger son.
Artist Statement
"My work involves a process of exploring the deconstruction of found words and images.
Fragments of appropriated newsprint images are deconstructed and then reconstructed to make new images and in some cases erasure poems. Through this method the visual and text information is transformed."
