Saturn.1
CAConrad
butterfly on a tissue box
not a real one
a painting
a monarch
one more sign
for anguish
poured and
poured a choice to feel or
stack bricks between
I was sad when my
talented friend started designing
television commercials
he told me to grow up
but the rocks in the desert I touch
signal an endless new place something
without money saying “never tire of
demanding love for the world”
About this poem
“‘Saturn.1’ is part of a serial poem, ‘Width of a Witch,’ written in Marfa, Texas, while on a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. The series was written inside a (Soma)tic poetry ritual titled ‘Marfa Poetry Machine in 36 Things,’ where I did 36 things a day for 36 days – things such as honor living poets each morning, carry a sweet potato around town dressed in a purple glitter skirt and get on the floor to follow along with video footage of the experimental dancer Mary Wigman’s ‘Witch Dance’ like a workout video for the soul!” – CAConrad
About CAConrad
CAConrad is the author of “ECODEVIANCE: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness” (Wave Books, 2014), which won the 2015 Believer Magazine Book Award. He lives in his car, named Sister Basho, and travels America to visit communities of poets for his project PACE (Poet Activist Community Extension).
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2015 CAConrad. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
