April 2022
Bio Note: My poetry collections A Matter of Timing, Time is Not a River, and Morning Calm are all available on Amazon. A new chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, is due out in early 2022.
Quote of the Month: "The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited." —William Saroyan.
Quote of the Month: "The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited." —William Saroyan.
Naming the World
Hiking the woods Jack and I come to a field of wildflowers and a flock of birds murmuring overhead. Sharpening a blade of grass he asks if I could name the parts of the world what would I call the air, clouds, birds, and grass. Instead, I asked him what name he would give himself, what name did he have before birth? Isn't that the same thing? he said, then called the earth, clouds, and sky by their Armenian names. Perhaps the ankles of the trees visible in the lifting fog confused the birds who, stricken with amnesia, broke formation and scattered in the wind.
Originally published in Comstock Review, 2018.
©2022 Michael Minassian
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