Nowhere

It was almost black,
the river serpentine—
everything looked like it was
coated in silver, much bigger
than he imagined, as if
the surface was somehow
a river of birds. The moon
was right there, and every
part of it, calling.

It’s an ancestral memory,
a sound he remembers
from before he hears it.

How dark the water was,
prehistoric, too loud,
flung forward
as the wave broke.
The sky slips from peach
to garnet to blood.

Who can say?
Life is long out here.

Laura at dVerse asked us to alternate lines from one page in each of two books and construct a patchwork poem. My sources were:

“The Echo Maker” by  Richard Powers, page 422

“Duplex” by Kathryn Davis, page 152

36 thoughts on “Nowhere”

  2. Nicely done Kerfe. Image and assembled poem too. Long thought patchwork/cento poems were valuable tools to use. Funny (sorry) but just strikes me, these type poems are like good retread tires, using words a second time around!

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  7. These- poem and visual art- are among my favorites from you, and that’s saying a lot. Now, here’s a fun fact: Kathryn Davis, whose prose you borrowed from for this writing challenge, was once upon a time a Poet In the Schools. (The seventies, Vermont, she in my school.) I saw her at a reading last summer, or maybe summer before, and reminded her of the seventies, and she remembered me. I still have, and showed her, the anthology of the poetry produced by her 2nd through 6th graders that she collated and published. (I was a sixth grader) And come to find out my poetry teacher is a novelist and a darn good one! I’ve enjoyed those that I have read and now need to read “Duplex”.
    Sorry, didn’t mean to name drop and steal the thunder from your amazing work.

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    1. I’m so glad you shared that story! I used to work on helping the librarian put together my daughters’ elementary school poetry anthology, and what a delight it was. How lucky to have such a wonderful guide!

      Kathryn Davis is one of my favorite authors, and I think “Duplex” may be my favorite of the books of hers I’ve read although perhaps that’s only because I just recently read it and I’m still pondering all its layers. All of her novels have many layers (just what I love)
      Thanks D.!

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      1. I’m glad you don’t mind the share. We were on the same hill, I lived near enough I sometimes rode my bike past their place, knew some of the same people and stories. But I was a kid. She an aspiring writer. It was cool to connect after so many years and to see her face light up seeing that little book from so long ago. That program was wonderful and sure gave me a boost.

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  8. Wow, this is a just out of this world experience to read this. I feel I lifted up and was flying, into a space where clarity came to me and the pieces fit. An oblique way of seeing the truth rather than straight on. Just fantastic.

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