SAINT JULIAN PRESS


Laura Smyth ~ Poet

String Theory

Impossible things like the surface of the earth
but with two more dimensions
a child’s toy suspended above a crib
chalk drawings and seabeds
currents, eddies, rocks and piers.

Then the mobile swings
and what becomes of creosote bushes and railroad ties,
row on row of dilapidated fences backed by
swarms of cherry blossoms?
Beauty is more like oxygen than we knew.

Try to imagine any shape to the universe
and a nagging fear rises of
unnumbered houses burning
like the forests they replaced, burning
to a cold, constant pressure at the center.

A child attached but adrift in the mother’s body,
a warning buoy,
a lotus before it blooms.




String Theory, II
​
and what if atoms are not constrained but are adrift 
all the yelling children in the yard
the crows in the trees
confirm my suspicions

I have drifted too far afield
I am adrift
drifts of snow are still months off
is that time or space you are describing?

assuring her sleep is not death
has become the nightly ritual
proof is important to a child
the world is entirely in her hands

you can’t keep this up forever you know
but she can, seemingly
inexhaustible fear, inexhaustible joy
like day and night

the light and dark ideas of childhood
absolutes so fantastic we don’t remember always
our poor cramped minds
come undone and looking to rest

Press Release
 
Poem One
Poem Two
Poem Three
Poem Four
​

Fox Dreams
Publication Date: November 8, 2024
Paperback:  $18.00
Publisher: ‎ Saint Julian Press, Inc.
Language: ‎ English
Paperback:  98 Pages
ISBN-13:  978-1-955194-31-

Available Through – Bookshop.org ~  Ingram Content Group  ~  Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble  ~  IndieBound
Fine Book Distributors & Retailers
 Saint Julian Press, Inc. * Houston, TX 77008  *  Ron Starbuck ~ Publisher-CEO
 Email: ronstarbuck@saintjulianpress.com * Web: www.saintjulianpress.com