spring/summer 2006, no. 7

                                                     
 

Annunciation XXXIII

“In the Mind’s Eye, a fractal is a way of seeing infinity” James Gleick “Chaos”

 

 

 

You would prefer only the part of that tree You would you would the part only The part you would of that tree would Its crown its bronchioles yet it grows It grows and bifurcates until the whole It grows it grows it grows the whole Until the whole until the whole develops Develops out of its fragment Out of out of it develops fragment the whole Always emerges out of its fragment  A whole a thorny crown A thorny crown a thorny thorny      All inward forces clash and iterate to shape a single leaf Inward clash and iterate iterate to shape inward and inward clash Single leaf clash and iterate clash and clash a single leaf And yes you would you would this single leaf this fragment And yes you would and yes this single single without It grows and bifurcates grows and bifurcates Grows into such thorny crown, such thorny love, The Gethsemane       The owl is a clock Is a clock is a clock owl Measures your blood vessels an owl is a clock Each nerve falls in a split capillary second Split capillary falls split each nerve Each nerve each nerve each nerve falls Falls an unbitten apple it falls each nerve Each broken heart becomes a fractal becomes Unbitten apple unbitten falls becomes           Each broken heart becomes becomes broken coastline Each broken each heart branches and divides Branches and branches and divides Not a milligram of flesh will be taken without spilling Without spilling without spilling without Blood without blood without blood spilling You will not run you will not run you will not run broken heart anywhere You are both a speck and the universe and the affine of one cell Both speck and universe and affine cell both speck and universe of one cell Of one of one cell the fractal dimension of this kiss Of one cell of this kiss bigger than its surface and topology This kiss its surface and topology both speck and speck       The line of infinite affection squeezed into limited space Both speck and universe of one cell of infinite affection One cell one cell infinite affection limited space Now it spreads it spreads infinite affection attracts The iteration of one gaze of one of one attracts A small gaze expanding like a shade like a shade A small gaze a small shade limited space expands Someone catching the sunbeams Catching the sunbeams catching the sunbeams the fatal Sunbeams the fatal fatal illness of light It is contagious it bifurcates it is contagious it is Light it bifurcates it is contagious it Enters arteries and veins and venules Arteries and veins it bifurcates Diluted light thinner and thinner Diluted thinner concealed dilated with light Thinner and thinner concealed diluted dilated Infinite and rising and rising and rising

 

 

                        ........................................... Ewa Crusciel
 

Ewa Chrusciel is a poet and translator currently completing her PhD in poetry and cognitive poetics at Illinois State University. She holds an MA from the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. In 2003, Studium published her first book of poetry in Polish entitled Furkot. Her poems and translations have been published in a variety of journals and anthologies in the United States, Poland, Hungary, and Italy, such as Studium, Zeszyty Literackie, Chicago Review, Lyric, Spoon River, ClanDestino , Il Giornale,and Przekladaniec. Other poems from her new collection, A Life, have been published in XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics: Streetnotes 2006, Pebble Lake Review, and are forthcoming in Mandorla and American Letters and Commentary.