{"id":2279,"date":"2014-09-29T16:15:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T20:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/?p=2279"},"modified":"2014-10-02T13:33:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T17:33:08","slug":"newly-published-poems-by-sandra-kohler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/newly-published-poems-by-sandra-kohler\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Published Poems, by Sandra Kohler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in the magazine “Ginosko, No 15” , by Sandra Kohler<\/em><\/p>\n

The Name of Our Nature<\/strong>
\nThe creek’s a blade of light that cuts
\nmorning. I’m flat, blank. I\u2019m afraid I\u2019m
\nlosing my subject: intense interactions
\nof the human heart. My head’s a chaos
\nof shreds and patches. I need a grandchild,
\na roomer, an affair. I need to tie red
\nrags to my black suitcases so they signal
\nme from the carousels, wave brightly as
\nthey fly by. I need bananas I need time,
\nan hour or two of a light that’s not broken,
\nbreaking. Why do we love what scares us?
\nIn my dream, it’s snakes: my son tries to
\nkeep them away from me, but here they
\nslither, two long ones. He insists we kill
\nand eat the old dog that belongs to us.
\nAfterwards, I complain to my husband,
\n“who do you think actually had to do
\nthe killing?” I will slay the old dog of
\nour sorrows and cook him to feed my son,
\nyet I won’t eat the flesh, consume what I
\nhave prepared. I don’t believe a word I’m
\nsaying but truth has nothing to do with
\nmy assent or refusal. These tales will not
\nexist unless I invent them. It’s Heraclitus
\nI need here, for the right enigma. As I raise
\nthe knife, the dream dog insists “you are
\nmy sister.” I’m torn to pieces. Who shall
\nI play with, my son or the dog? How do
\nI choose, what do I turn to game that is
\ndeadly earnest? What earnest can I give
\nof what my heart intends? The name
\nof our nature is longing.<\/p>\n

Influx<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s rain is so gray I need to turn on lights
\nin the morning kitchen. Tuesday after a holiday,
\nso Tuesday doubled with Monday meaning:
\nresumption of the routine, real. I come back up
\nto the bedroom where my husband\u2019s sleeping, wrap
\na blanket around me instead of a robe, stare out
\nat the wet green grayed world, remembering that
\nin my dream a tribe of children are visiting, I put
\nthem all to bed in different places in the house,
\nmakeshift arrangements, realize there\u2019s an extra:
\na baby abandoned not on my doorstep but in
\nmy bedroom, bed. I take him in, wondering why
\nhe turned up, whose he is, accepting his presence
\nas part of this influx of children, a new regime
\nin my life\u2019s history. Outside, cars on wet roads,
\nthe sound that\u2019s woken me for a string of days,
\ncontinual, replicated: an iteration of Tuesdays.
\nThe east\u2019s layered mass, gray to muddy taupe,
\nheavy, fraught. A line of local geese goes over,
\nheading north. I am going to drink my coffee,
\nempty my bladder, put on different shoes
\nand an attitude in which I can walk and talk
\nlike the ordinary gods. I am going to make do,
\nmake love, make poems, make a life incisive
\nas the vee of geese that goes north as I write.
\nI am going to be ready for what day doesn\u2019t
\nbring and unready for what it does.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in the magazine “Ginosko, No 15” , by Sandra Kohler The Name of Our Nature The creek’s a blade of light that cuts morning. I’m flat, blank. I\u2019m afraid I\u2019m losing my subject: intense interactions of the human heart. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}