Silvia Kofler and Matthew Brouwer
Monday, June 15 at 7:30 PM
1719 25th Street at Sacramento Poetry Center
Host: Tim Kahl
Silvia Kofler’s most recent publications include poetry and translations published in The Colour of Saying, an anthology is celebration of Dylan Thomas. German translations of 10 Hafez ghazals in collaboration with Bill Wolak and Mahmood Karimi-Hakak appeared in THOSE WHO STOOD UP FOR TOLERANCE [DIE JENIGEN DIE FÜR TOLERANZ STANDEN]. She has read her work at New York’s Poet’s House; and most recently she read a few of her poems in German and english at schokoladen, eine Lesebühne in Berlin. She is a member of the Riverfront Readings committee and editor of Thorny Locust. Her second collection of poetry, Radioactive Musings, was published in 2008. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri.
Labyrinths
by Silvia Kofler
by Silvia Kofler
–Inspired by Labyrinth by Robert Morris
at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
The crowded glass labyrinth reminds me
of transparent zigzag line partitions
at airport terminals
created to move hapless travelers
toward body-scanners,
or pad downs, without choice,
trudging along a singular path.
of transparent zigzag line partitions
at airport terminals
created to move hapless travelers
toward body-scanners,
or pad downs, without choice,
trudging along a singular path.
Labyrinths are not mazes
labyrinths draw us into a dead-end center
force us to re-trace our steps
repeat our moves.
labyrinths draw us into a dead-end center
force us to re-trace our steps
repeat our moves.
Mazes confuse with complex choices
fewer are willing to enter
opaque mazes.
fewer are willing to enter
opaque mazes.
Matthew Brouwer is a performance poet and teaching artist residing in Bellingham, WA. His work bridges the worlds of spoken word and literary poetry to create a style that can be both evocative and subtle, enlivening and profound. He has performed throughout the US and been featured in regional literary, performance, and visual arts showcases such as Cirque, Phrasings, and Strands. Matthew leads workshops and retreats for teens and adults, coordinates the Whatcom Juvenile Justice Creative Writing Project, and has facilitated Kintsugi: a writing circle for people suffering chronic medical conditions. Stories We Must Tell, his first full collection of poems of poems was released April, 2015.
After I Finally Die
And once again I’m just
a dandelion tuft of mind rooted in
that greater acreage of mind
When once again
I’m just a chocolate chunk
bedded in that infinite mint ice cream bliss
You will come blazing by
like a comet
spitting celestial fire
And I will exclaim to my fellows
“There goes one with whom for a time
I splashed in the shallows of the body
One with whom I dove deep
into the whirlpools of love
One who by gazing into the reflecting ponds
of her being
saw the finer divots of my own desires!”
And those spirits planted around me
will nod in assent
like eel grass rippling in the tide
As you speed away
like an omen of planetary importance
across some ancient
midnight sky
