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The Sentence
Andrea Rexilius
It was a good day for feathers.
Barbara Guest was in the air.
I wandered through a county rodeo,
that was really jazz in the park.
The park was a brothel, of brothers
yelling at all things shiny,
jumping for joy at round objects.
I was the bat in the sky. Curled like
a fuzzy seed pod. Going for a walk
pretending to be a bee.
Barbara Guest was in the air.
I wandered through a county rodeo,
that was really jazz in the park.
The park was a brothel, of brothers
yelling at all things shiny,
jumping for joy at round objects.
I was the bat in the sky. Curled like
a fuzzy seed pod. Going for a walk
pretending to be a bee.
Andrea Rexilius is the author of The Way the Language Was (Letter Machine, forthcoming 2020), Sister Urn (Sidebrow, forthcoming 2019), New Organism: Essais (Letter Machine, 2014), Half of What They Carried Flew Away (Letter Machine, 2012), and To Be Human Is To Be A Conversation (Rescue Press, 2011). She is Core Faculty in Poetry, and Program Coordinator, for the Low-Residency Mile-High MFA in Creative Writing at Regis University. She also teaches in the Poetry Collective at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, Colorado.
About the work: “I wrote "The Sentence" very quickly. I was actually trying to revise another poem at the time, but my partner, Eric Baus, was blasting a poem by Barbara Guest and I found it difficult to concentrate. We had just gotten home from a feather walk at City Park. We go there all the time and it's usually fairly empty at 7pm. This time though, it was a full on party because Jazz in the Park was taking place. So there are those lines--plain as can be. The day before we ate honey-flavored candy and walked to the Botanic Gardens. I took this combination (honey & flowers) to mean we were pretending to be bees. When we walk in the park at night we see bats. Once we saw what I thought was a fuzzy seed pod at the Botanic Gardens. When I got up close to it, the seed pod turned and looked at me. It was a tiny, sleeping bat. In terms of the current manuscript’s nods to poetic predecessors, this poem is probably waving at Frank O’Hara.”
About the work: “I wrote "The Sentence" very quickly. I was actually trying to revise another poem at the time, but my partner, Eric Baus, was blasting a poem by Barbara Guest and I found it difficult to concentrate. We had just gotten home from a feather walk at City Park. We go there all the time and it's usually fairly empty at 7pm. This time though, it was a full on party because Jazz in the Park was taking place. So there are those lines--plain as can be. The day before we ate honey-flavored candy and walked to the Botanic Gardens. I took this combination (honey & flowers) to mean we were pretending to be bees. When we walk in the park at night we see bats. Once we saw what I thought was a fuzzy seed pod at the Botanic Gardens. When I got up close to it, the seed pod turned and looked at me. It was a tiny, sleeping bat. In terms of the current manuscript’s nods to poetic predecessors, this poem is probably waving at Frank O’Hara.”
The Art
“Doctor”
pen and ink on paper
5"x9"
2016
Stefan Kellar is a 25-year old artist working out of Fayetteville, AR. His work displays a style reminiscent of messy notebook doodles with a symmetrical balance. Kellar prefers to create mixed media drawings reflecting the state of the artist, ecology, entomology, and how it all coincides. He primarily focuses on consciousness and pressing works that reflect the state of mind. Each insect that Kellar incorporates demonstrates his detailed research of their life cycles, folklore/myths, and contributions to our everyday lives. Indulging in under-appreciated aspects of life, his interpretation reveals that consideration for the beauty that surrounds us is obscured. His idea of what diverts us entails surface-level desires like materialism and consumerism, by which Kellar believes most of today’s society lives. He invites you to step into his beautifully eerie, yet comforting work that exposes our anxieties and fears and speaks to our personal struggles and progress.
About the art: “Many use the bubonic plague doctors as a representation of darkness. You can’t help but look at one without getting an unsettling feeling in your stomach. The doctors served to help with the plague; however, what if there was more to that story? Because of what they wore, they’re often described in history as being the embodiment of evil, even though it was just a hazmat suit. And what about the patients? Seeing how fever dreams seem to bring out some of the darkest thoughts and projections. One wonders if these doctors and their suits haunted their dreams. “ Doctor” shows ghouls protruding from the masks worn by the plague doctor— resembling birds' beaks. . These masks were then the design for respirators used to protect doctors from airborne bacteria; however, they can seem absolutely terrifying—hence why they’re usually associated with darkness/evil. In this painting, I put myself in the world of a patient living during the plague, and I imagined that this is what my nightmares/fever dreams would have projected as a result.”
About the art: “Many use the bubonic plague doctors as a representation of darkness. You can’t help but look at one without getting an unsettling feeling in your stomach. The doctors served to help with the plague; however, what if there was more to that story? Because of what they wore, they’re often described in history as being the embodiment of evil, even though it was just a hazmat suit. And what about the patients? Seeing how fever dreams seem to bring out some of the darkest thoughts and projections. One wonders if these doctors and their suits haunted their dreams. “ Doctor” shows ghouls protruding from the masks worn by the plague doctor— resembling birds' beaks. . These masks were then the design for respirators used to protect doctors from airborne bacteria; however, they can seem absolutely terrifying—hence why they’re usually associated with darkness/evil. In this painting, I put myself in the world of a patient living during the plague, and I imagined that this is what my nightmares/fever dreams would have projected as a result.”
