Rochelle Owens: from 'Solarpoetics' (continued), 8–11

[In the order of the letters of the alphabet I am making use in these poems of a system of mental relations which by the act of writing becomes the poem, a cosmic meditation. (R.O.)].

 

“Cerebral Cortex”

 

8

                                                     

Begin to understand

the nature of the leavening process

 

*

 

The letter H

catches in the throat   then she steps

backwards and flings

a handful of earth beyond the edges

 

Of a page   you hear a hollow sound

 

The dry external covering

of an ear of corn   then stepping forwards

she scatters letters cut out from

the skull   spine bones

 

The form of a human body

 

When I in my youth

in a blue wool dress   I strolled

in a circle of blue 

sings the poet Maudite

 

9

 

The cerebral cortex   a sliver of brain

barely thicker than a credit card

 

*

 

The letter I vertical

under an occult sky once upon

a time I sat cross-legged

in the crotch of a tree

 

Grape    wine   grain   bread

 

From roots of plants

that bear the grain in darkness 

light   heat   cold   focus on

a common scene 

 

Chasms in the fissured earth

 

The story of the baker 

a set of skills in sequential order

the finished loaf   A to Z

in place and space

 

10

 

Recognize in some dozens of milliseconds

a written word

     

*

 

The letter J   the shape

of a hook and on the hook

 

the butcher’s coat

wind   heat  cold  drought

 

Blood and mud flows out

of the right sleeve 

 

One animal 

gut   head and tail   measure

body length   jaws  claws

diameters of holes

 

The zones of inclusion   exclusion

 

Salt for the stew   salt for the bread

once upon a time   my mother

was sold from me when I

could but crawl

 

11

 

Dispatches from the frontiers

of neuroscience

 

 *

 

The letter K stands apart

like a barley plant

in three dimensional space

the dry external covering 

 

A snarl of fibrous hairs

 

Drifting in circles

wind   heat   cold  drought

and dead white the barley plant

cut down 

 

Deboned and buried

 

Then the reading brain

follows one letter after another

beyond the edges

of a page

 

One millionth one millionth of a second

an episode

 

[Earlier sections of “Solarpoetics” were published January 24, 2017 on Poems and Poetics.]