Sep 05

Matisse’s Clarity of Light

by Elizabeth J. Coleman

This morning by mistake I saw

a headline that if the earth moves

a tiny bit from its axis, it will

spell disaster. I tried to look away

too late.             Still it never rains

in a Matisse, and the mail comes

twice a day. And the boy, the music

student, will serenade us silently

for eternity. Just as tiny ice

crystals floating within clouds

at high altitudes cause astonishing

sun glints. Just as out beyond

our solar system lies the luminescence

of the Milky Way.   Just as wishing

to have led another life doesn’t
mean we do not love our own.

Elizabeth J. Coleman’s poetry collections include The Fifth Generation (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2016) and Proof (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2014) (Brittingham and Pollak prizes finalist). Author of two chapbooks, including Let My Ears Be Open (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and co-author of Pythagoras in Love/Pythagore, Amoureux (Elizabeth’s translation into French of poet Lee Slonimsky’s, sonnet collection (Folded Word Press, 2015), Elizabeth is the editor of HERE:Poems for the Planet (forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press, spring, 2019).’

Art by Art Editor, Michelle Johnsen

Michelle Johnsen (art editor) is a nature and portrait photographer in Lancaster, PA, as well as an amateur herbalist and naturalist. Her work has been featured by It’s Modern Art, Susquehanna Style magazine, Permaculture Activist magazine, EcoWatch.com, EarthFirst! Journal, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, and used as album art for Grandma Shake!, Anna & Elizabeth, and Liz Fulmer Music. Michelle’s photos have also been stolen by AP, weather.com, The Daily Mail, and Lancaster Newspapers. You can contact her at mjphoto717 [at] gmail.com.