Emergence for Yumpu Final version
Emergence Poetry and Art by Lisa Kagan
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<strong>Emergence</strong><br />
Poetry and Art by Lisa Kagan
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<strong>Emergence</strong><br />
Poetry and Art by Lisa Kagan<br />
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Contents<br />
Brilliance Obscured<br />
9<br />
Mt. Zeus<br />
25<br />
Moonrise<br />
in the Garden<br />
45<br />
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This book is dedicated to my family,<br />
east and west. With special gratitude<br />
to my editors, my dad Neil Kagan and<br />
my husband Lewis Childs.<br />
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Words<br />
Quietly they emerge<br />
some are seed words<br />
ready to plant themselves<br />
multiply<br />
cross pollinate<br />
repopulate<br />
some are shadow words<br />
living in caves<br />
labyrinths of roots and bugs<br />
some are new words<br />
self-invented<br />
entrepreneurs<br />
explorers<br />
some are God words<br />
unspoken<br />
hovering in the universe.<br />
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Brilliance Obscured<br />
9
Cartwheels<br />
You are all ocean<br />
sea caves<br />
a multitude of tiny stones<br />
sun kissed you carry me<br />
through tide pools<br />
starfish slowly turning cartwheels<br />
one rotation will take a lifetime to complete.<br />
10
Today<br />
In the mornings, amidst the fog<br />
I desire to dissolve into nothingness<br />
feel my bones mingle with the salt of the earth<br />
some days I could just float off<br />
making my home on a warm rock<br />
at the mouth of a bellowing sea cave<br />
but today, I will lie down in the tall grass of this crazy life<br />
with a breath of thanks,<br />
rejoice that it is my own.<br />
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22
Brilliance Obscured<br />
Hailstorms blacken a channel<br />
of afternoon sky<br />
I stand in the heart of brilliance obscured<br />
falls rush<br />
in an endless conversation with gravity<br />
thunderous call<br />
resonates off walls of rock<br />
the scream inside of me is released.<br />
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Mt. Zeus<br />
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26
Sustenance and Song<br />
You are a soft grin<br />
that dips down a little on one side<br />
lights up the whole room at a glance<br />
you are a steep slope<br />
vaulting shamelessly into the sea<br />
tails flying, ef<strong>for</strong>tlessly in motion<br />
sailing across the whole world in one deep breath<br />
you are a spark<br />
all handstands and shooting stars<br />
filling the night with howling visions<br />
galloping through celestial fields<br />
a stallion trailing glitter and stardust<br />
you are a cavernous wonder<br />
obscure columns and hidden rivers<br />
spelling out secret stories in the darkest hours<br />
whispers of earthquakes<br />
tremors trapped in rocks<br />
ladders carved up into another time<br />
you are a ripe fruit<br />
spellbound with glory<br />
ready to be devoured<br />
drop by drop in the early morning light<br />
sweet color swells<br />
sustenance and song.<br />
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Aerial Conception<br />
Asymmetry of delicate wings<br />
charts the beauty of your flight<br />
traversing the surface of afternoon in a kinesthetic embrace<br />
exhibition of aerial harmony<br />
anticipates offspring of exquisite grace<br />
your conception in the sky<br />
trans<strong>for</strong>ms stillness into life<br />
quietly I become one of those golden leaves<br />
drifting slowly past<br />
becoming the evergreen’s shadow<br />
silence born to night.<br />
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44
Moonrise in the Garden<br />
45
Moonrise in the Garden<br />
I dig my hands into the winter earth<br />
surrounded by trees<br />
strikingly bare in retreating afternoon sun<br />
fall plumage of red and gold<br />
dissolving to a brown rumpled pile at their roots<br />
some stand proudly<br />
branches arching boldly across the sky<br />
others, more reserved<br />
humble brown trunks keeping their brilliance<br />
hidden beneath the ground<br />
preparing to bloom once again<br />
I feel like I have entered into their space<br />
at a very intimate moment<br />
as if they were getting undressed<br />
and lost in the serenity of their unveiling<br />
stark figures showing off their individual <strong>for</strong>ms<br />
without distractions of leaves and flowers<br />
quiet surrender<br />
I glimpse remnants of summer’s unrestrained passions<br />
clematis vines intertwine with the crabapple tree<br />
in a silent embrace<br />
wildly overgrown butterfly bushes bow deeply<br />
dreaming of butterflies, far off in their migration<br />
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in this temperate December rain<strong>for</strong>est garden<br />
not everything is sleeping<br />
already fresh green heads peek out from the dark earth<br />
I want to tell them to go back to bed<br />
you are up too early, sun hardly rises here now<br />
your exposed tips will be taken by frost<br />
yet they are arriving in their own perfect harmony<br />
even on the darkest days of the year<br />
harboring enough faith to believe in the coming light<br />
a single purple flower stares at me unblinkingly<br />
taken by its bold presentation<br />
amidst a tumble of brown and green<br />
it seems unperturbed that it is the only flower blooming<br />
in the entire garden<br />
now as the moon rises<br />
today’s wonders become shrouded in darkness<br />
obscured, at peace with the night<br />
they keep each other warm in their underground chambers<br />
quietly at rest<br />
amidst the rain, amidst the stars<br />
writing their own poems to be unearthed in the springtime.<br />
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The Same Dream<br />
Night breathes slowly into the room<br />
outside humming birds are hidden in the shadows<br />
beaks dripping with nectar<br />
garden photosynthesizes beneath the stars<br />
spiders draw lines of silk from branch to branch<br />
weaving a delicate twilight of fine bridges<br />
scent of lilies populates the rooms of the house<br />
wild bodies explode from the vases<br />
veins of magenta<br />
tiny hairs<br />
deep purple stamens<br />
brilliant green stars<br />
bursting<br />
still wet with yesterday’s rain<br />
others lounge languidly in the corners<br />
petals cascading over the edges<br />
watching<br />
ones in the bedroom seem to be swimming off<br />
dreaming of one day becoming sea turtles<br />
free in the vast tumult of waves<br />
in the currents of our sleep last night,<br />
I believe we also had the same dream.<br />
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Credits<br />
Poetry and Art by Lisa Kagan<br />
Designed by Lisa Kagan<br />
Lisa Kagan Designs<br />
www.LisaKaganDesigns.com<br />
Portland, Oregon<br />
The poetry in this book was written between 2001 and 2009.<br />
Copyright © 2009 Lisa Kagan Designs<br />
All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without<br />
permission is prohibited.<br />
Printed by Stevens Printing, Portland, Oregon.<br />
Front cover: Metamorphosis, 2009, Mixed Media<br />
Celebrating the human spirit through the<br />
trans<strong>for</strong>mative nature of the artistic process<br />
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