Seth Jani: Summer 2019 Poetry Contest Winner
Seth Jani currently resides in Seattle, WA and is the founder of Seven CirclePress (www.sevencirclepress.com). His work has been published widely in such places as The American Poetry Journal, The Chiron Review, The Comstock Review and Oracle Fine Arts Review. His full-length collection, Night Fable, was published by FutureCycle Press in 2018. More about him and his work can be found at www.sethjani.com.
Birdwatching
From the body of the stone
I am searching for that yellow wing
Which haunts the sky,
The glimmer and incandescence
Which sparks on the dark pool
Of the pupil, as if a galaxy were
Exploding from inside.
We have many names
For the mysterious flash
Which rattles our lives
From their dull cages,
But no facts,
No designations beyond
The deep codes of fable.
When the music falls
From the twin-blooming trees
It’s like water stirring in a place
That’s been so still for years
Even the dead listen,
Raising their flayed heads
From the cold echo chambers
In the mire’s dusky caves.
The Valley
A plane crashes and appears
As a red diamond
Sinking into the sea.
A life crashes too,
Flaming like a star
On a molten night.
We think it’s the end of everything,
But its really just the beginning.
Happiness falls into sorrow,
The rain rises into air.
Desire cuts its obsessive cord
And becomes a cloud.
Life and death paint
Their twin murals on either side
Of the marble hall.
We walk through the valley
Examining textures and angles,
Waiting out delusion
Until our hearts are patient
And exact.
Repast
You crafted love
Part from desire
And part from the body’s
Movable forms.
After the leavening force of grief
You couldn’t believe
It had always been a simple light
Moving through the rooms
With the grace of summer.
Maybe the difficulties
We encounter in each other’s eyes
Are just misunderstandings.
Facing strangers, it’s hard to believe
We are all the universe
Spinning beautifully
Across the distance.
But here we are,
Wind and flame,
Sharing this delicate bread.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 