May 13, 2009 / Creative Writing
I watched Rebel Without a Cause on TV late one college night when I learned …
[audio:https://theotherjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/sequence-1.mp3|titles=Sequence]
By craft I led the black otter onto land,
then calmed it with a drug and other sorcery.
Another raised the knife
and dressed the flesh.
Roasted, it was bitter
like a stone or a scroll,
and it could not nourish me.
In the next dream I tried swimming from myself
and reached only the end of the pool.
About the Author
J.D. Smith
J. D. Smith has two books forthcoming in 2012: a humor collection and his third collection of poetry, Labor Day at Venice Beach. Awarded a fellowship in poetry from the United States National Endowment for the Arts in 2007, Smith has also published an essay collection, Dowsing and Science (2011), and a children's book, The Best Mariachi in the World (2008). Smith blogs at Smitroverse: http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com.
Susan Lilley
May 13, 2009 / Creative Writing
May 13, 2009 / Creative Writing
Mary Van Denend
May 3, 2011 / Creative Writing
May 3, 2011 / Creative Writing
Mary Van Denend reflects on Simone Weil’s “Waiting for God,” a seminal piece on Weil’s understandings of grace, affliction, and our “sacred longing” for God.