Jeff Harrison

Gallows Wit

Abyss is amid The Muses; Their faces Her pinions obscure. Do I count Abyss one of The Muses? She would furnish me gallows wit to hand back to Her, in phrases such as "Fabled bird of Araby". Are these the plumes that obscure The Muses from brow to mouth?

Behind Her pinions

Abyss is amid The Muses; Their figures Her pinions obscure. If not a surcease, Abyss is a caesura. If a caesura, things are happening behind that darkness. Behind Her pinions, a costume change? Imagine the chagrin of a Daemon costumed as a Muse. If not Daemons, then imps and such creatures accustomed to spoiling milk.

Amid the lyrists

Abyss is figured as Hades, subterranean ruler of donkeys. Optimistic shades and skeptical shades alike peer into the darkness to ascertain it's truly dark, their hands weighing its pitch. And in their mouths? The lyric silent as the chanticleer. Oh, the pinions of Abyss — Oh, of Hades — they are the pinions of the chanticleer. Leave the lyric as empyrean; bray, donkeys. Ah, donkeys, your mouths are filled with earth.

Jeff Harrison has poems in all the issues of Otoliths except the second issue. He has publications from Writers Forum, MAG Press, Persistencia Press, and Furniture Press. He has two e-books at xPress(ed), and one at Blazevox. His poetry has appeared in An Introduction to the Prose Poem (Firewheel Editions), The Hay(na)ku Anthology Vol. II (Meritage Press), Sentence: a Journal of Prose Poetics, Xerography, Moria, NOON: journal of the short poem, Dusie, MiPOesias, EXPLORINGfictions, EOAGH, and elsewhere. He has an interview blog with Allen Bramhall called Antic View.

 
 
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