ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Jessica Nirvana Ram is a first generation Indo-Guyanese and an MFA poetry candidate at University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Jessica received her B.A. in Creative Writing at Susquehanna University in 2018. She is a nonfiction editor for Honey & Lime Literary Magazine, and has poetry in Barrelhouse. She has upcoming work in the Mid-American Review. You can find her tweets about teaching, editing, writing, and all other life things.
Also by Jessica Nirvana Ram:
Incantation To The Departed
astral ashes
twenty-four hours / of fire / reduce / bones, teeth, & hair / to a refined powder / while blood, skin, & organs / all dissipate / slowly / into the atmosphere / my grandfather’s ashes live / above my grandmother’s fireplace / for three days / before his ghost / inhabits her dreams / before he carries them to / nightmares / he pleads / let me go, take me to water / the distant coasts of Guyana / beckoned his soul / after three years / in a functionless body / three years sewn / into a hospital bed / he ached / for the warmth of home / for sugarcane soil / creole tongues / he was impatient / & I do not blame him / my grandmother tells me / about the importance of returning / the body to water / how letting the remains / of death / be washed away in ocean / allows the soul / to travel anywhere in an / instant / it makes me wonder / where he must have went / first / whose dreams he slipped into / how he must have / stretched his legs / in relief
When my grandfather died, it was the first major death of my lifetime. It was also my first time experiencing a cremation. I had to think about it a lot, what it meant for the body to be broken down like that and the importance of what we did with the ashes. This poem was a sonnet to start because I found myself rambling without a form. There was so much I was trying to say about life and death and grief, I overwhelmed myself. The forced structure of having to restrict syllables helped me find the precise language that had been hidden beneath my ramblings. It ultimately took this current form because while those calculated metrics were important, I also wanted visual fluidity on the page. For me, this form allows that. It was the poem’s way of stretching its legs. After putting it into this form, I remember letting out a breath. It finally felt right.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
