How the Swan Swims the River Aux Sables by Erin Wilson
The way the arms reach up to sculpt the face,
then the loving sweeps down along the arms brushing toward
the mid-section, this is the incantation, the drawing-forth,
the asking through bodily prayer to all things earthly--rise.
And the way the feet leave the ground, motivated through
gravity to work through withdrawal up from the floor, up into
the bed, these feet and arms the two, or four, or eight points of ordinary existence
that are really the swan's neck and the swan's wings all downy-feathered.
And the mid-section married with the mind, in its hovering or pumping,
is flames and embers like light off water off the overhanging cedar boughs
which realize in this state, from these far heights,
they are neither light, nor bough, nor water.
And then the mouth part, the beak,
how the mouth part folds back, upon the pillar of air, in terror.
then the loving sweeps down along the arms brushing toward
the mid-section, this is the incantation, the drawing-forth,
the asking through bodily prayer to all things earthly--rise.
And the way the feet leave the ground, motivated through
gravity to work through withdrawal up from the floor, up into
the bed, these feet and arms the two, or four, or eight points of ordinary existence
that are really the swan's neck and the swan's wings all downy-feathered.
And the mid-section married with the mind, in its hovering or pumping,
is flames and embers like light off water off the overhanging cedar boughs
which realize in this state, from these far heights,
they are neither light, nor bough, nor water.
And then the mouth part, the beak,
how the mouth part folds back, upon the pillar of air, in terror.
Erin Wilson's poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Poetry Ireland Review, Natural Bridge, The Adirondack Review, On the Seawall, Juked, and others. Originally from Manitoulin Island, she lives and writes in a small town in northern Ontario, Canada.
Julia Forrest is a Brooklyn based artist. She works strictly in film and prints in a darkroom she built within her apartment. Her own art has always been her top priority in life and in this digital world, she will continue to work with old processing. Anything can simply be done in photoshop, she prefers to take the camera, a tool of showing reality, and experiment with what she can do in front of the lens. Julia is currently working as a teaching artist at the Brooklyn Museum, Medgar Evers College, USDAN Art Center and Lehigh University. As an instructor, she thinks it is important to understand that a person can constantly stretch and push the boundaries of their ideas with whatever medium of art they choose. Her goal is for her audience to not only enjoy learning about photography, but to see the world in an entirely new way and continue to develop a future interest in the arts. You can find her at her WEBSITE and on instagram: @Juliajuliaajuliaa