Larissa Szporluk’s “Deliverer”

“Dark Sky Question” as a title of a collection of poems sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? I found the poems inside equally compelling by what they tell and what they leave out. What would be the single question you might ask to a dark sky? What would its’ response be? Szporluk’s poems have an air of mystery in them. The one that caught and held my attention in my reading is “Deliverer” which I am happy to re-post below. If you like what you read, check out DSQ. Enjoy.

Deliverer
by Larissa Szporluk

No one can spin forever.
It will all slow down.
The poles will grow sore on the world,
the valve in the heart
will retard, slow down, slow down,
to a speed we can’t see,
can’t feel, slow as a cloud
carting snow through atomic darkness,
to her son, when the magnet
is low, when the blood,
can’t see, can’t feel, how slow…
as the whale pulling out of the sea
can’t see the no-sea,
can’t feel the tide bring it back,
breaking her agony over the beach,
who she was, who she loved,
who God opened up, how still and how slow,
belly no longer with Jonah.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *