Mantric Blizzard as Space
A continent
that has made a covenant with its own ruin
has made the skies starved
has made stone momentarily disadvantage itself
Its circumstance deeper than tremors remains equational habit miming itself
via counted tablets of time
not a mantric blizzard of space into empty air
but every piece of ice as mathematical symbol
not a living quotient
but a dazed nutrient gone awry
a dark veering
stumbling over its own loins
& because
I am at nerves’ end
I can only breathe mantras
& live within
Notes:
From Divine Blue Light, © 2022 by Will Alexander. Reprinted with permission of City Lights Publishers, citylights.com. For more information about Divine Blue Light, visit here
This poem is part of the portfolio “Will Alexander: Poet-as-Spectrometer” from the November 2022 issue. Audio version performed by the author.
Source: Poetry (November 2022)