Lisa Jarnot

Lisa Jarnot [John Sarsgard]

from Lisa Jarnot’s Ring of Fire:

Valley of the Shadow of the Dogs

He could be so far outside himself, generating body heat, far from the telephone, in a room, heated, with the outside of his thoughts, turning, with precision, for the reasons he would know, nearer to god and the mountains and the outside of the room, with the chairs, perceived as objects, always slightly passed, looming, on the forefront, like cake, looming, on the forefront, ambitious, like a sumac leaf, lovely, a wing, with wings and made of cake, having counted let me count, one, the ways that there are, unused, potentially useful, held at a distance like a flower filled with tiny bugs, loved and lovely, without raccoons, beside the spiders, smashed on the sides of the forks, lovely the form in the meadow of the shadows of the dogs, howling, reckless, unusual, unfulfilled, with the christmas lights, steady, and how close I am to myself, and how close they are to the sumac leaves, lovely, against the rain, falling out, fully heated, from the inside of his head, with spiders, in a meeting, against the rain, given to this disposition, equally talented, talkative, talking in tongues, beyond the heads of cows, friendly, on the staircase, friendly, where I waited and the city moved, drenched beneath the sumac leaves, having fallen, into the field, where the dogs are looming, in the forefront, in the shadow of the gods, dreaming of being alone, relieved, heated, steady on the trees beside their wings, riding on the backs of all the bears, and the bears, relieved to be the sumac leaves, and the sumac leaves, relieved to be the bears, and the spider, on the plate, relieved to be just so, wanting to be loved, where the city moved, and then I moved, and the pins all moved, out of place, tetanus-like, having syllables, wishing to love, wishing to love the ocean and the ski runs and the sand, wishing to love the sheep, converging, on the frontispiece, having thrown the ball, equally having thrown the ball and having thrown it, into the leaves, near the trees and all the dogs, meditating, on the coffee cups, meditating, on the backs of all the bears.

Sea Lyrics [excerpt]

I am this Santa Ana wind and we are bowlers, we are at the haircut man, I have divulged so little of the avocado dawn, I am waiting to buy coffee near the docks upon the square, I am all the hot dogs and the roof of city hall, I am hardly standing in the kamikaze rain, I am of the new year sober now, I am inside of all the horoscopes at once, I am the rainy part of early fall expecting to go back across the bridges, I am near the greenish plantains down the street, I am the subtler angles of the sunlight from the surface of the moon, I am here to yet predict the dawn, I am getting better like the oceans on the sidestreet, I am surrounded by water, I am walking sideways near the church in Watsonville upon the orange line at Lammas Tide.

Right Speech

Love, which is meaning

compels speech, speech

which is human, compels

mammals, from the trees

of the language of the

mammals, from the mailbox

where they rise, speakers,

hugged close to the

forest fires late at night,

tigers, cicadas, and trees,

name of the one who is love

compels speech which is

meaning from trees to be

mammals, mammalian,

made of music, made of

tigers with the flames,

rising up from the gardens

of the naming of the night,

giant, speaking to me,

content with this, the trees

with tigers and with corn,

the hot spell of speaking

speech, the language laced

with tigers laced with night.