Four of Katy Didden’s erasures appear in the May/June 2017 issue of the Kenyon Review. We are pleased to present three more of her erasures here on our website.
Images endear
anyone fated to careen
whale-like
between homes
to the extraordinary
postvolcanic landscape
of Iceland.
A hand-tinted photo
of Laki, its craters
of dove-gray
ashes matted with snow,
attracts artists
who stage eddas
in the rills:
tales of the year
I shut out the sun.
Tourists nap
in the road.
Primary photo: Katy Didden, 2016.
Primary text: Muldoon, Paul. “Paul Muldoon Reflects on Reykjavik, Iceland.” Newsweek.com. Nov. 26, 2012. http://www.newsweek.com/paul-muldoon-reflects-reykjavik-iceland-63887
• •
The easel leaner
aims to unblur Iceland.
She edges even blanks
to her argument: slant roofs
stripe a jade acre,
and the cliffs
are an archive of gestures.
There are the landscapes of Iceland,
as well as ideas which block the view.
Still, this is art, as real as stone,
a window to see land
clean, chilly and open.
To honor the water in you.
To make it possible to rest.
Primary photo: Larissa Borteh, 2016.
Primary text: Ashbery, John. “On Louisa Matthiasdottir.” Louisa Matthiasdottir. Jed Perl, ed. Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2000.
• •
I add land
and undo the maps.
Leaders stride
across trackless paths,
following the turning law
back to the source.
As eagles see,
one sees
valleys
spliced with flows
and coastal towns
revolving
in processions, coalitions,
parades.
Called to duty,
one sees
forms evolving,
amends
our land’s armor:
the law.
Primary photo: “Seyðisfjörður.” Kevin Tseng, 2016.
Primary text: Ring, Trudy. “The Legacy of the World’s First Out Lesbian Prime Minister.” Advocate. http://www.advocate.com/politics/politicians/2013/05/03/legacy-worlds-first-out-lesbian-prime-minister. May 3, 2013.
Read more poems by Katy Didden by purchasing a print or digital copy of the May/June 2017 issue here.
