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natalie hanna :: Three poems

 

salvador dali at burning man...
            (-after Andy Verbooom's The Appendectomy of Kenpachiro Satsuma) 

salvador dali at burning man
walking as though he has seen
resplendent the angels gamboling
in terrifying aspect, mechanical powered
by people inside
across the plains
their shadows stretching out
the heralds of the heralds
at size and then
how everything moved in every direction
how every frame froze in his shutter fast eye
dali atomicus later reproducing one
at once in the once at onceness
of the things that had not yet begun
to drip into the landscape languid
can three cats thrown
again and again, ever be the same
(the changes minute and great)
suspended as all things living be

 

 

incognito mode
            (-after Liam Burke's twitter pome "Doomscrolling") 

for god's sake, you incompetent bard
just let me level up, i'm so already tired
(1/6) 

maybe you were jilted by my thrice monthly tweets
surreptitious sends of bear threads, no RTs
when you started asking who is the bad art friend
bad wolfing your way through my week
draining wisdom 280 cursed symbols per round
(2/6) 

who doesn't know this story
is naive, obsolete - do you even tweet?
the point is to interact no matter how
bad everything makes you feel, what is digital is
art, and you have tried twice to read the saga
friend, tried twice and failed, maxed out my free views
(3/6) 

of the honoured nyt, who holds your hand
and promises i can keep reading
keep trying to be relevant
if i give up addresses, the cost of five
strawberry acai lemonade refreshers
or confess my association with the social network -
(4/6) 

con saving throw (no bonus) enough to prevent me
from reading more of the jinxed bat art friend scroll
not high enough to spare me from your tome
of stories about the story, the druid changing
from bear to mouse to spider to air
(5/6) 

whispers our party's workhorse spell
vade incognito et fac quod vis
(6/6)

  

 

hello astronauts, welcome to earth*
            (-after J.Bezos, W.Shatner, Q)

i'm a rocket man of some renown —
my gold command uniform you knew so well
with seams that inspired confidence 

if you ever loved me all those years
with noses pressed to tv sets
follow me now 

on your phones and notebooks
as i stab into space one last time
aboard the new shepherd's stellar cock 

a cowboy afloat with the midas crowd
for the first time i can remember 

into the blackest sky where i'd led you to believe
in the limitless adventure 

where skin did not obstruct, poverty was unknown
and medicine was free 

where the federation tipped the scales
of ecology for dying planets 

and help was just a distress call away
in the darkness between solar systems 

let me tell you, fandom
who watch the evening news
in your worn-out slippers at evening's end
when the blue atmosphere whipped off like a sheet
removed in your sleep 

and i saw we are surrounded by death, i knew
we're out of time and have to do better —
don't you want your grandchildren
to know you saved the planet 

with your recycling bins and
public transportation to your gas plant jobs
chasing the net zero golden cow? 

take my word, no description
can equal this weightlessness
from above you, i know exactly what to do — 

not all of you will make it into space, you know
from origin to colonies
governed by the few 

today the uniforms cost more
expand for bellies and pockets
today they're science officer blue
which should inspire confidence 

what you've given me is the power of prophecy
all good things must come to an end
i am a comet crashing
i am ten kinds of sadness
they will bury me looking up at the sky

 

  

 

Statement:

salvador dali at burning man is an absurdist ekphrastic poem in the style of Andy Verboom's The Appendectomy of Kenpachiro Satsuma. The poem reflects on two works of art that challenge the concept of space and state: Salvador Dali's The Temptation, 1946, and Phillipe Halsman's Dali Atomicus, 1948.

incognito mode responds to Liam Burke's Twitter poem Doomscrolling and to the "Who is the Bad Art Friend" discourse occurring on Twitter. The poem frames both the discourse and the platform as structures that require us to be always visible, and with which we are anxiously compelled to engage, against the escapist nature of constantly consuming 'hot take' micro-content/game culture.

Finally hello astronauts, welcome to earth responds to the recent Blue Origin space flight which included famed Star Trek actor William Shatner as a passenger. This poem mingles pop-culture, everyday reality, economic disparity, and the role of the uber-rich in environmental disaster. The title is taken from the greeting Jeffrey Bezos gave the returning passengers upon opening their capsule. The final italicized line, a well-known aphorism, is also a line spoken by the Star Trek character Q - an omnipotent being who knows humanity must end. The line is placed here in conversation against the now diminished space captain. The remainder of the italicized lines are taken from comments made by Shatner regarding the space flight experience.

 

 

 

natalie hanna (she/her) is an Ottawa-born, queer, disabled, lawyer of Middle Eastern descent, working with low-income populations. Her writing focuses on intersectional feminism, political, ecological, and personal themes. She is the author of twelve chapbooks, most recently infinite redress (Baseline Press, 2020), and the collaborative chapbook machine dreams with Liam Burke (Collusion Books, 2021). Between 2016-2018, she was Administrative Director of the Sawdust Reading Series and served on the board of Arc Poetry Magazine. Her poem, "light conversation" received Honourable Mention for Arc's 2019  Diana Brebner Prize. Her poetry, commentary, and interviews have been published in Canada and the U.S. She runs battleaxe press (small press poetry), and lives in Ottawa, Ontario, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. She is working on her first, full length collection of poetry.

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Up to six poems in a single .doc file with author biography and photo to kieferjdlogan@gmail.com All rights revert to the author/s upon publication.

issue twenty-seven :: January/February 2022

  Christopher Patton :: Glitch Apple Howie Good :: Three poems Kenneth M Cale :: Three visual poems Christian Ward :: Three poems Matthew Walsh :: POACHED EGGS Jeremy Scott :: Five poems

about :: where is the river

where is the river :: a poetry experiment is a bi-monthly poetry journal open to a variety of aesthetics, forms and experiences, with a preference towards showcasing work by emerging writers. There is no single path, nor any single way. Founded in September 2017. Edited by Kiefer JD Logan.