Rochelle Owens: 'Solarpoetics' from a work in progress

1

 

Wyh do we udnersntad a txet eevn fi the letetrs

aer in dsiordre

        

*

 

The letter A

like a membrane

melliferous the animal flesh

bread baking   butchery

 

Alphabet of blood and ash

 

Litanie   incantation

from the back part of her throat

salt for the stew   salt

for the bread

 

Sings the poet maudite

 

When I in my youth

strolled in a blue wool dress

I strolled in a circle

of blue

 

2

 

The reading brain    the eyes moving constantly

while reading

 

*

 

The letter B

when black letters of fire

patterns of animus across

the landscape

 

The place in the distance

 

Where the air

smells of poisoned rain

take one step after

the other

 

Where you do not want to go

 

An amalgam of words

in sequential order here where

you walk ahead   stop

raise your eyes

 

3

 

We identify only ten or twelve letters    quick jumps

three or four letters left and seven or eight letters right

 

*

 

The letter C circles

zigzags   animates the plaster

death cast   a solitary

workwoman then

 

From the back part of her throat

 

When I in my youth in a blue wool dress

I strolled among   maidens   monks 

and birds   I strolled in wind  

cold and heat   

 

Across green volcanic hills

 

There In shadows   haze   smoke

in three dimensional space  

piles of charred human

and animal bones

 

4 

 

The history of the neurology of reading

the existence of a visual center

 

*

 

The letter D whispered

in the dismal quarter where

absence of a picture   the green

volcanic hills

 

Grain   grape   bread   wine

 

The story of the shepherdess

staged and scripted sub-plots  there 

in a bucolic setting our lady grows

out of a mound of dirt

 

Her rose-bud mouth a crooked line

 

A breast vein as thick as a finger

the wedding feast   bread and meat  

yellow   sulfurous   a plume

of  smoke

 

5

 

Some written words lit up or hidden among

geometric forms

 

*

 

The letter E

elaborate the graphic design   

chasms and fissures

in the earth

 

Our lady grows out of rotting meat

 

Sings the poet maudite

I in my youth   concealed and disguised

walked in three dimensional

space 

 

Heat   cold   wind   water 

 

Data  science  

pain   fear   phobia   multimedia

exhibitions   photographic art   illustrations  

the ritual of baking bread

   

6

 

Yeast spores are ubiquitous in air and on

the surface of grain

 

*

 

The letter F

the preserved body rotates  forms

sweet bacteria   then the skin

of the fingertips  

 

Chemical     molecular   where

 

In a circle they joined hands  

ruiners and destroyers engulf and consume  

victims and executioners ooze out

the urge

  

Staged and scripted sub-plots

 

Genesis to revelation

in elaborate letters   shift   twist and slant

disease   famine   torture   war

earth   air   fire   water

 

7

 

Everything begins in the retina

ten years of research on the reading brain

 

*

 

The letter G a graphic design  

sight   touch   listen   the sound

of grinding corn   the smell

of bread baking

 

Then she brews tea over a fire

 

There in reddish violet light

violet light    a jagged black line zigzags

a graphic design   the head covered

with a hood  

 

identity unknown    tree   rope   grain

 

The air smells of smoked meat

his mouth waters   taste buds pulsate 

from a gap   a fissure

a flow of hormonal forces