January 9, 2013 / Creative Writing
In “Unseen,” the poet Luci Shaw examines air as both force and shelter, a mysterious tabernacle “for what we can’t see.”
the juncture of beauty and cognition,
practicality and imagination—
these are our clothes.
we are wearing art.
unaware that we are muses,
we swim in conception,
sleep among wonder,
adjacent to inventiveness.
we are wearing art.
oblivious to our bodied significance,
stunning precisely
because we are canvas,
clay
and stone,
sand
and volcano.
our bodies—
surfaced wearings—
steer life into the center,
into stitches,
concentrated colors,
chaotic collaborations.
feverish
we glimpse the world
that will be
our skin
lovely
infinite.
About the Author
Oluwatomisin Oredein
Oluwatomisin “Tomi” Oredein is a ThD candidate in theology and ethics at Duke University Divinity School. Her work focuses on Christian theology from an African diasporic perspective. Oredein is a contributing editor at Marginalia LA Review of Books and the author of the chapbook i have stared down winters.
Luci Shaw
January 9, 2013 / Creative Writing
January 9, 2013 / Creative Writing
Robert Hill Long
September 21, 2011 / Creative Writing
September 21, 2011 / Creative Writing
In “The Catch,” Long offers the image of a fisherwoman, carrying the “stunned pewter” of her catch, to market. In “Esau’s Portion,” we are brought to the hospital cafeteria and the funeral potluck, where Long hungers for the memory of one lost: “what I lack is the thanks you made me take in, bowed down, at the end of any given day.”