We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
with practice a memory like a voice can be thrown into any unsuspecting object stop
each thought is a cone that depends on its opening at both ends stop
I need a few ants to appreciate the sugar-white of bed sheets stop
unfolding the paper crane won’t undo its allegiance to sequence stop
the features emanating from clouds are more fierce through my open window stop
each breath’s devotion to transparency fails to convert my flesh stop
I mark my room with all five of my senses but soon it is strange again stop
the intoxicating smugness of a black felt hat’s softness stop
pinholes pressed through paper fill immediately with shadow please advise
Rusty Morrison is author of After Urgency, winner of Tupelo Press’s Dorset Prize, and co-publisher of Omnidawn Publishing.
Contributions from readers enable us to provide a public space, free and open, for the discussion of ideas. Join this effort – become a supporting reader today.
Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox. Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter, Monthly Roundup, and event notifications.
in your carpeted office you lay my life down / and say open up to that small room in my sternum.
In his new book, the former Fed chair cuts through economic orthodoxy on central banking. But he fails to reckon deeply with its political consequences.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission