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Susana Gardner in Response to Kristen Hanlon

​ORDINARY NEPHOLOGY

                         poems after Kristen Hanlon




A GENERAL THEORY OF LOVE
OR, A KISS IS NEVER JUST A KISS
Unless it’s porn
—as it potentially eroticizes
an innocence, beauty, or truth it cannot
readily contain or claim. Or, perhaps
it fetishizes darkness and unknowing--
           Choice, the loose spectre--
of what once was.
           Or, maybe it’s in a car from the 60’s
parked at the point, the wind and salt whipping
about as she moves back further and further
away from the inevitable waves
as her head smacks
the glass.



WE FOLLOW THE SKY
Until our end, feed on hot sun,
red birds, bracken weed and thirsty
meadow-promise. The internet
knows everything…so we hide
our adages in the cloud where
the words of our ancestors
give us comfort.



ORDINARY NEPHOLOGY
Or,- A Poethic Nomenclature of Johns’
Sitting tree branches. Faces
Pointing skyward—O Heart
of the cloud, O quick
of the night—All prone
&starry-eyed &interwoven.



CLOUD HEAVY LONESTAR
Ever-possible grief is dancing
in the million-faced Sea of Narcissi,
reflecting the quiet quiet storm of
please, please, please—the price
of distance—of darkness—of light.
O, Numerous star-racket.



IF THOUGHTS WERE CLOUDS
We might wonder, where does the static go?
            —O shell-heap, O Star-gobs, O clatter-weed
of the unkempt, yet, we drive on— in our fleshy
dressed bone-suits made of burnt-out matter,
star-stuff. We drive on—to the clang that
follows and later echoes, lost among us.



MY DAUGHTER MADE A CLOUD IN A JAR
My daughter made a cloud in a jar today. Google told her
how to do it. Is there no stranger coincidence than that
of my daughter deciding to ‘make’ a cloud in a jar today?
The very day I am writing cloud poems after Kristen Hanlon?

The experiment calls for a mason jar, hot water, a match and some ice.
The experiment calls for the experiment of the response. I tried to find
the cloud in the poem today. My daughter tried to find the heart of her
cloud today—she tried to find her cloud’s shadow in the glass.



THE UNBODIED SUBLIME
Begins with a tightening in the chest and
fog of heavy clouds. The head carried around
in a vague halo for a time—confused obscura.
Sometimes time follows with a measure of
quick foxes, a turning—palms facing upward--
release any pretense or serious contemplation
of control—which loosens the set furrows
when breath and still and now and breath and
still and now and breath and still and
now comes still again.



WITHOUT SADNESS WE KNOW NO JOY
Everything must happen in measure. Even in letting go--
as space is measured by what isn’t—I try to determine
any potential outcome with compassion.
But what shall contain us? What will our end story be?
If hate and fear are used as on-line indoctrination
for terror, why can’t love be used similarly to combat it?
Love for love’s sake? LET’S LOVE!!! Let us love
the earth and the sea and the trees and the sea and
the air and the sea and the sea and the ozone and
the sea and the sea and the sea and the sea and
the sea and even the awful orange men among us.



THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS
Says Pascal, Whereof
Reason knows nothing.

           Tumult at heart--
                      O, Asphodel,

All authentic and whatnot,
her seeds carried by the wind
           and the sea and other
elements--

defining and redefining
itself in its fluky augers.


​

​Susana Gardner is the author of the full-length poetry collection:s [ lapsed insel weary]  (The Tangent Press, 2008),  HERSO (Black Radish Books, 2011) and, CADDISH, Black Radish Books, 2013. Her latest book, Somewhere Upon a Time / / Oceanids & Dreampomes is forthcoming from LARK BOOKS in 2017. Her poetry has appeared in many online and print publications including Jacket, How2, Puerto Del Sol, and Cambridge Literary Review among others. Her work has also been translated into Icelandic, Italian and French as well as featured in several anthologies, including 131.839 slög með bilum (131,839 keystrokes with spaces) (Ntamo, Finland, 2007) NOT FOR MOTHERS ONLY: Contemporary Poems on Child-Getting and Child-Rearing (Fence Books, 2007), KINDERGARDE: Avant-garde Poems, Stories, and Songs for Children, Black Radish Books (2014) and in the forthcoming CITY AND SEA Anthology from Frequency Writers, Providence. She lives in Rhode Island where she teaches, writes, edits and curates the online poetics journal and experimental kollektiv press, Dusie.

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