JEFFREY MORGANThe Insomniac's Guide to Empty Churches
I like how the pew implies the body has a listening angle, how the rows remind you of being the only person in a boat. I like the ribbons in the pages like tongues that must be abandoned to describe astonishment, and the narrowness of the central aisle-- its patience and economy dispelled in the expanse overhead. The things we say to God in the rose light and geometries of stained glass or the darkness of more desperate hours or both--I like that you only get to be alone with some of your decisions. Maybe grace is made of the many forgotten things and lost parts of the composite, how you can be so startled by the guttural echoing of the wood as you shift your weight to rise. 115 The Paris-American Jeffrey Morgan is the author of Crying Shame (BlazeVox, 2011). New poems appear, or will soon, in Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pleiades, Third Coast, and West Branch, among others. He lives in Bellingham, WA and blogs occasionally at Thinnimbus.tumblr.com.
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Next week's poet:
Victoria Lynne McCoy |