Molly Bloom 22
  • MOLLY BLOOM 22
  • Jeremy Hilton
  • Camilla Nelson
  • Kate Ashton
  • Jasmina Bolfek-Radovani
  • Julie Sampson
  • Simon Smith
  • Jessica Mookherjee
  • Melissa Buckheit
  • Linda Black
  • Will Hall
  • Peter Robinson
  • Janet Sutherland
  • Mark Goodwin
  • ----------
  • Previously in Molly Bloom
  • Submissions
  • Editor
  • MOLLY BLOOM 22
  • Jeremy Hilton
  • Camilla Nelson
  • Kate Ashton
  • Jasmina Bolfek-Radovani
  • Julie Sampson
  • Simon Smith
  • Jessica Mookherjee
  • Melissa Buckheit
  • Linda Black
  • Will Hall
  • Peter Robinson
  • Janet Sutherland
  • Mark Goodwin
  • ----------
  • Previously in Molly Bloom
  • Submissions
  • Editor
  Molly Bloom 22

Linda Black

How it began / something upon which . . .
 
Draw a figure I command cursively, so as not to forget – a soft-pencilled script disintegrating somewhat: a long tall figure – several balanced one on top of the other – kinship, inter-dependence – forewarned. Next day I turn over. I have this idea. I have this different idea.
​

I don’t – I start – at the bottom, a little way up, same pencil running smooth. Ok, good. I begin with a head tilted forwards, tumbling hair, arm (right) stretched ahead, as though asleep I’m thinking. How should the other one go. I give up, chop off its arms just above the elbow, turn the head sideways on, stick out a tongue, spikey hair. Neutral, ungendered, protruding ribs, its tail coiled as a mercreature, fanning out upwards, perfect for a thin limb to balance upon, back leg hovering, elongated neck – phloem, leaf-stalk, receptacle, sepal. Atop, a vase bereft of water (though you can’t tell), arm stalks fanning out – five of them, the middle one an open palm on which the pate of a lemon-head balances. I give it eyelashes, the tip of a nose, a thin straw to suck upon. I haven’t finished yet.




The artist balks


at possibility     reminisces

              the line

off-loaded      nascent squiggles

impregnated      rancid

              with what may befall

a bow, rimmed & rhymed, scored with fold, tied, translated …
 
              the wherewithal

distant      yet near enough      to probe               

from dense bowers a creature may crawl, a heliotrope…

              back    is gone     gleaned

yet not     loosed    as the soil   may be

on the bed of a river

              a slant row of houses (all fall down)

a poplar tree      sharpened



A tulip fled


to the sky      uprooted

at the lower edge      the sea

forms    scarp   &   ridge

an   illusionist’s   haven      a place

for all such folk      to harbour

speculation      severance

will come



​Surrender
 
 
In the wound light

the sward assembles      nib & bristle      istle & skein
 
fine-laced carpet      blade & slender
 
purpose capers     crissed    &    hatched

&   overcome     geese

line the sky     sky’s lines

rub   &   scumble
​

​
Picture
© Copyright Linda Black 2020

Linda Black is a poet and visual artist. She has published three collections with Shearsman Books: Slant (2016), Root (2011) and Inventory (2008). The Son of a Shoemaker (Hearing Eye 2012), based on the early life of Hans Christian Andersen, and illustrated by the author was the subject of a Poetry Society exhibition in 2013. She is editor of Long Poem Magazine. Some of her visual work can be seen in Tentacular and 3am magazine. She has previously appeared in Molly Bloom 12 and 19.


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.