One unrolling bolt of ice cream silk …grape-sized globes
of lapis lazuli and goldvein grouped and reposing in the
corners…a fountain or a chandelier…a set of gold combs
scalloped in black pearl…a stretched suede book that knocks
as soft as a little girl…hautly arched whalebone stilettos…
fat, well-behaved chairs…paintings on every inch of ceiling…
tiny crystal pots containing not ions of mashed l i me, birdbath
water, temporin and pearl…a leat her up of heron quills…two
rocaille tiaras…a Zouave jacket woven f rom cr ushed leaves
and gold…the extended family of an orchid…a bracelet made
of tombstone…a wig culled from Reykví kingur towheads…a
lunar astrolabe…a millefiori flower bed…a set of handwritten
encyclopedias…a comprehensive book of cloud typology…a slice
of wedding cake crystallized into chalcedony…a Cherry Plum,
Clematis, and Honeysuckle cure…a fine and tiny typewriter…
porcelain nails in a bell china box…flowers floating in a cabinet
vivarium…a perfume of Fiji nectars…a box of San Franciscos…
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This selection comes from Anne Lesley Selcer’s A Book of Poems On Beauty, available from Gazing Grain Press. Purchase your copy here!
Anne Lesley Selcer is a poet and art writer. In 2014 from A Book of Poems on Beauty was chosen by Dawn Lundy Martin for Gazing Grain press. A double chapbook with Lara Durbeck was recently published by Supersuperette press. In 2013 SFMoma commissioned her for a series of essays and she wrote on language and the moving image. The book Banlieusard was commissioned in 2005 by Artspeak gallery, and other writing has been anthologized in It’s night in San Francisco, but it’s sunny in Oakland, The Feeling is Mutual: A list of our fucking demands, NW Edge III: the end of reality, and The Physics of Context. Poems are forthcoming in Fence and Armed Cell and have appeared in Dusie, Where Eagles Dare, and The Clackamus Review, among others. Art writing can be found in catalogs or monographs for galleries such as Centre A, the Or and the Helen Pitt gallery, and TV Books / Deitch Projects as well as in magazines Fillip and Doppelganger magazines. In San Francisco, she was a member of the Nonsite Collective. In Vancouver she created and curated the Chroma Reading Series series for artists, poets and researchers. She is the current resident at Krowswork gallery.
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.
