The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Lucy Ives’ “Orange Roses”

Early Novel

riding beside the soul in a great
automobile

fences spiral up whatever’s
at heart

a face that doesn’t look like
a horse

but thinks
with spurs

———————————————————-

in estimation of the moment before impact
the weight in it rides out but not on legs

the wheels farthest in back lock
and swinging over ice are

muscle under weight of bone
or limb that whips along an arc

———————————————————

if one follows one’s understanding rather
than resisting: pleasure.

though, not following pleasure:
receiving its press from out

the world as one

———————————————————

enters farther

——————————————————–

in the economy of appearance
for so many hundreds here

to enter yet
control

just now
your partnership

I love you, giving up
love you, passing in

——————————————————–

don’t we just want to climb
back in our bed

sleep, exchange
imperial, the perfect

rose, nothing
no one’s

——————————————————-

he remains, the
greatness is in him

and in leaving, the left
is great

absence of emotion in a room

letting us wait

why wait

——————————————————–

made

and made the flame at least with these
eyes in mind

memory

made night for remembrance

made the intentions that someone wear
them

made water that
it lie in the sink in an adjoining room

passage for carrying

the knot so language would have
mention

of what it later did

—————————————————–

the conversation of one
thousand dreams

occurred
a tent fell

—————————————————

the idea there
is a world

and each person
under that tent, another myself
or the wiser picture
of foreigners walking in a field

if we approach
one thinking

it is a child
we haven’t

————————————————–

walking backwards I said, Tell me
what man is

—

This selection comes from Lucy Ives’ book Orange Roses, available from Ahsahta Press. Purchase your copy here!

Lucy Ives was born in New York City in 1980, received an AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is currently completing a PhD in comparative literature at New York University. She has lived outside the U.S. for extended periods in Hirosaki, Japan, and Paris and has studied French, German, Greek, Japanese, and Latin, among other languages. A deputy editor with Triple Canopy, the arts magazine and publisher, Ives continues to live in New York.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.