Monthly Archives: April 2017

Thorn Ladder

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

Blood rose your body the earth line scorched barbed too within it I’m caught if you can’t move I’m stuck post-human you and I wedded beyond mystery on the cusp caught or idled in line on the line to be … Continue reading →

Posted in drawing, Prayers and Curses | 1 Comment

Conrad Aiken and the struggle of consciousness

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

even one’s newness is old —Conrad Aiken   One of the first things that comes up in a google search of the name “Conrad Aiken” (right next to we found Conrad Aiken) is a review of his Selected Poems in … Continue reading →

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In the Chemo Room

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

We who are turned away from the star —Blanchot There’s no one here like the girl in Tarkovsky’s Stalker, left awake in the clear morning after night’s watch. Here, today, everyone is old, floating on feeble cheerfulness, the relief or … Continue reading →

Posted in Prayers and Curses | 5 Comments

All Roads at Once with Alfred Corn

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

I usually seek out the books I want, primarily through online shopping. Those books, along with articles and social media connections, suggest other books. But every once in a while a book finds me. Alfred Corn’s first book of poems, … Continue reading →

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Yahia Lababidi’s Balancing Acts

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

The poems of Yahia Lababidi recall some great names: Borges, Pessoa, and Baudelaire. The spirit of Baudelaire looms large in the poems of Balancing Acts. But I think of visual artists too. Striking, novel images are conjured, mysterious and dreamlike, … Continue reading →

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Reaching for Roses

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

Like kissing yourself after fingering a thorn, no need to preach to the choir. Lessons learned and forgotten can be learned again. Like new eyeglasses held up to the flames, scorched timbers can be used to build reminders, to frame … Continue reading →

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