Einige Kreise (Several Circles), by Stephanie Roberts

Posted on September 24, 2019

January – February 1926

I imagine it was cold. The exhibit audio

said there was a voice, he got lost in it,

switchboard operator, had to find her,

have dinner that same night.

Several circles may well be a season

grounded on nocturnal skyscape,

colour scumbled, opaque

& transparent, all of life and breath

in imagination’s ouroburos.

I’m gaining on Kandinsky’s completed

circle, yet the robin’s song returns.

How does found and lost

have equal weights of permanence?

A thoughtfully arranged bouquet

becomes more powerful before it’s over,

and even if we didn’t photograph

every sneeze, the breeze

of blooms stays through

the generations.

Certainly, it was cold in Munich.

Love waits at the end of line;

mind seizes line, draws it

end to end, kisses it to canvas.

From The Sixty-Four best poets of 2018, Black Mountain Press

*First Place Poet ~ Stephanie Roberts*

Stephanie Roberts is our first place poet. In 2018, she had work featured or forthcoming in over four dozen periodicals and anthologies. A 2018 Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she was born in Central America, grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and is a longtime resident of Quebec, Canada. A recent manuscript finalist for the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Poetry prize, her previous publications include Verse Daily, Atlanta Review, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Crannog Magazine, great weather for MEDIA, and Occulum. She will be a BoxSet Series featured poet with Oxidant/Engine in 2019.