The National Poetry Month Issue || Sitting Backward, We Move Unstoppably Forward
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University of Northern Iowa Sitting Backward, We Move Unstoppably Forward Author(s): Helen Klein Ross Source: The North American Review, Vol. 291, No. 2, The National Poetry Month Issue (Mar. - Apr., 2006), p. 12 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25127554 . Accessed: 12/06/2014 18:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . University of Northern Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The North American Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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Transcript of The National Poetry Month Issue || Sitting Backward, We Move Unstoppably Forward
University of Northern Iowa
Sitting Backward, We Move Unstoppably ForwardAuthor(s): Helen Klein RossSource: The North American Review, Vol. 291, No. 2, The National Poetry Month Issue (Mar. -Apr., 2006), p. 12Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25127554 .
Accessed: 12/06/2014 18:08
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
University of Northern Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The NorthAmerican Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:08:07 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
NAR
SUSAN RICH
Self-Portrait with Trampoline
Where wouldn't she go if she trampolined into night,
above open fields
and orchards
of apricot, red plum?
What might she know if she basked
in her bright body,
in the seduction of flip and spin,
the air tender as muslin?
Above the clock tower
and punk-lit roadside diner
she'd ascend
to where the glory of
a dozen blue martinis couldn't reach?
where the worry lines
of waitresses unfold
in a chorus of customer oh's.
Her limbs, hummingbird-light, as undocumented dishwashers
rinse away grapefruit rinds
and remnants of peach pie,
faces to the window, a recognition in their eyes.
Then she'd feel the pulsing of her own heart's gate
sense the rhythmical thump of yes, of go?
somersaulting into the simplicity
of all she knows now
all she had always known.
HELEN KLEIN ROSS
Sitting Backward, We Move
Unstoppably Forward
On a train, you tell me
You are no longer
a child.
And because you are my child
I understand virgin. Wisps of white
Flurry into the air, storming Our eyes, our noses, our hair.
Not feathers, seeds informs the conductor
Swiping a paw at the tempest between us.
Your hand on my knee, still
Immaculate as snow, rises to catch
One. Later, I lie with the other
Who made you, twining tight
As if the raft of our bodies
Could save us.
FINALISTS JAMES HEARST POETRY PRIZE
12 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW March-April 2006
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:08:07 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
