ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Crystal Ignatowski's poetry has been featured in Roanoke Review, honey and lime, Flypaper Magazine, and more. She lives and writes in Oregon.
Also by Crystal Ignatowski:
In Light of All the Suicides
Three Poems
Quiet Spaces
after Kaveh Akbar
On the road to Sisters
you opened yourself up
to me. Told me about when
you were eight. Told me about
your cousin Ruth and what your uncle
made you do, what he watched.
This poem is starting itself too soon.
On the road to Sisters
you opened yourself up
to me as I watched fields poke
through gentle snow and birds land
on dusted trees. The radio
was just low enough to hear
something other than the quiet space
between us. I tried to imagine
you at eight, your body a blank
slate. Sometimes I forget you
used to be a different person than
the one I sleep next to each night.
Your neck and back ache from digging
ditches. Won’t you dig a ditch
for your past and bury it.
Won’t you let me bury it.
On the road to Sisters
you opened yourself up
to me. Afterwards, we talked
about the latest news: black holes
and the woman whose eyes
were filled with bees. It’s true:
the universe has already written
the poem you were going to write.
It’s true: this poem has already been
written in another voice.
The radio was just low enough
to hear something other than
the quiet space between us.
All poems are just
quiet spaces between us.
All noise is just
poems in disguise.
Kaveh Akbar's tweet (in italics) has been an inspiration for many poets. I wrote this poem in the car. It came fast and undisturbed and I wrote it exactly how it came to me in the moment.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
