Tuesday Poem: “Re-vision” by Karen Zelas
Re-vision
There is a moment, somewhere, when I see you.
Truly see you. A gift.
…………………………………. Before a glass, a Renaissance self-
portrait. Maybe in a courtyard, a Gothic arch
Or by a Roman column: unruly curls snaking,
your father’s smile. Sicilian sun.
………………………………………………….A fishing harbour,
gulls rising through blue, many steps, and you
carry my burden. Ionian light and Jason searching
for himself. ………………………A spear
of light in a dark atrium; you sparkle. The trickle
of water.
………………………………………………….The old so new.
Or perhaps in relief
against a white wall; always white walls.
Blue-and-white tiles and men mending nets.
The voice of the market. Bull-fight roar in the wind.
Twin iron beds in a whitewashed room. A fan
to cut hot heavy air. A small table:
bread on white paper, a knife
beside cheese, sharing stories
and red wine thicker than water.
.
© Karen Zelas
Published in Night Glass Table, (Interactive Press) 2012
Reproduced here with permission.
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About the Poem:
Night’s Glass Table is Karen Zelas’s first book of poetry and one of three collections launched at the recent Christchurch Writers’ Festival. Published by Australia’s Interactive Press, it also won the Interactive Publications 2012 IP Picks Best First Book competition.
When I first read Re-vision, I was struck by the way it instantly transported me to the sunshine and sense-of-history of the Mediterranean, where the relationship between the poem’s narrator and companion is established within a continuum that is both present and past, real and mythic—and finally grounded in the here-and-now of:
“bread on white paper, a knife
beside cheese”
and the red wine, which like blood, is “thicker than water.”
A beautiful, elegant poem, with just the right balance between present and post, the concrete and a sense of the ephemeral.
Night’s Glass Table is available from bookshops in NZ and directly from Interactive Publications, here.
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About the Poet:
A former psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Karen Zelas has been Fiction Editor of Takahē literary journal for the last five years. Her poetry has been widely published within New Zealand, including in Landfall, Poetry New Zealand, Takahē, pending in JAAM and broadcast on radio; also Australian ezines Snorkel and Eclecticism and recently blogged by Interlitq (UK).
Several anthologies contain Karen’s work. She was editor of Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury, Prose and Poetry (Wily Publications, 2009) and her historical novel Past Perfect, published by Wily in 2010, has now been republished as an ebook by Interactive Publications, Brisbane [see here].
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Yes! This is a light and lovely slice of Mediterranean. Makes me see it all too…and smell the cheese. Thanks Helen and Karen.
I agree with Helen, lovely – you can almost taste the atmosphere of the poem.
Thanks for commenting Alicia and Helen: am glad you both enjoyed the poem.
Fantastic, will look for this one, Helen – IP has published one of my books too so it should be too hard for me to find Karen’s 🙂
A poetry book, Ashley?
IP has published some good work from NZ of recent years, including Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry of NZ, as well as Tim Jones’ Men Briefly Explained and Keith Westwater’s Tongues of Ash.
Yep 🙂 Readers tell me they can see the haiku influence in the poems, which sounds about right as I like eastern forms too!
I should get Tim’s book too, as it sounds great – and what a fantastic title is that of Keith’s book!
Glad the TP is sparking your interest in several different poets, Ashley.
I always look out for and enjoy Karen’s poems in The Press in the Friday Go section.
I love the “Go” poem feature full stop, but agree that Karen’s poems always repay a read.