Artisan, and Ecclesiastical

Abstract

Artisan, and Ecclesiastical Patricia Clark (bio) Artisan I make this room a countryof flowers, winter demands it, broken trees, frozen groundspeaking of the grave, a terrible diction I refuse to learn. It’s fair, I think,to long for what refuses us— the moss green of new growth, delicateblossoms in balloon or ray shapes. I make this room a country of petals—the gallica rose in its fuchsia extravagance, repeat blooming into August.I make this room a country of shelter, roof and floor a steady pledge from the safe,walls the very symbol of sentinels. I make this room a country for thosesent away, the one from Wylie Street, lover of horses and words, and an Irishwriter, his narrow kind face, a clerk at sixteen, poet forever,and not my sister, one who fast-walks eight miles around her city a day,not going anywhere. I demand an end to this cataloguing, this dreaded leave-taking. Instead, I make this room my [End Page 116] country of astringent light, trying to craftout of cold air an enlightening brew, aiming to create with lamenting words, deepsorrow, an invigorating ragtime tune. [End Page 117] Ecclesiastical It is only that wild turkeys, single file,make a dark processional through deep snow. It is not that they represent anything.They go searching for a thing to eat, scratching. It is something to observe. No harm comesto them—coyote or red-tailed hawk. But the woman who watches notes their slogfrom east to west, how a subgroup tried deviation, following the creek, and the onein charge flew at them. Safety where they circle, peck and bob for seeds, then flap upheavily, ungracefully, to roost in bare trees. This goes on day following day,and she notes that soon the mating will start, males parading their full display of giftsas they strut, preen, turn like the Pope in sun. [End Page 118] Patricia Clark Patricia Clark is Poet-in-Residence and Professor in the Department of Writing at Grand Valley State University. She is the author of four volumes of poetry, most recently Sunday Rising (Michigan State, 2013). Her work has been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily, and has appeared in the Atlantic, Gettysburg Review, Poetry, Slate, and Stand. New work is forthcoming in Kenyon Review and Southern Humanities Review. Copyright © 2014 Middlebury College Publications