Guggenheim Fellowships - Congratulations to Laura Kasischke!
The winners of the 2009 Guggenheim fellowships were announced today. 180 fellowships were awarded to over 3000 applicants. Among the winners were 11 fiction writers and 9 poets, including poet Laura Kasischke. Laura's poem, "Space, in chains" appeared in HFR issue #42. Check it out below. Click here for the complete list of winners or more information about the fellowships. Congratulations, Laura!
Space, in chains
Things that laugh, then cover their mouths, ashamed of their teeth. A strong man pouring coffee into a cup. His hands shake, it spills. His wife falls to her knees when the telephone rings. Hello? Goddamit, hello?
Where is their child?
Hamster, tulips, love, gigantic squid, to live. I’m not endorsing it.
Any single, transcriptional event. The chromosomes of the roses. Flagella, cilia, all the filaments of touching, of feeling, of running your little hand hopelessly along the bricks. Sky, stamped into flesh, bending over the sink to drink the tour de force of water.
It’s all space, in chains—the chaos of birdsong after a rainstorm, the steam rising off the asphalt, a small boy in boots opening the back door, stepping out, and someone calling to him from the kitchen,
Sweetie, don’t be gone too long.
Space, in chains
Things that laugh, then cover their mouths, ashamed of their teeth. A strong man pouring coffee into a cup. His hands shake, it spills. His wife falls to her knees when the telephone rings. Hello? Goddamit, hello?
Where is their child?
Hamster, tulips, love, gigantic squid, to live. I’m not endorsing it.
Any single, transcriptional event. The chromosomes of the roses. Flagella, cilia, all the filaments of touching, of feeling, of running your little hand hopelessly along the bricks. Sky, stamped into flesh, bending over the sink to drink the tour de force of water.
It’s all space, in chains—the chaos of birdsong after a rainstorm, the steam rising off the asphalt, a small boy in boots opening the back door, stepping out, and someone calling to him from the kitchen,
Sweetie, don’t be gone too long.