Descent

Adam & Eve, Gustav Klimt

We sit on the green banks of the swelling river.

Every morning—like this one—a random

tree branch, its leaves kissed by the wind,

unspools its longing, shattering the sun

into asymmetric filaments of gold.

No one is here to see this;

it is ours alone.

What was it we used to say about broken light?

That it reveals itself as

orbs in flight, willowing

through the separating skies.

I recall our stunted conversation, our timid words,

emerging from the dance of breath and tongue with teeth.

I remember, too, your distant laughter, peeled from

your throat by the white heat of late July.

Have we known one another too long?

Oh, there is no escaping

this fugue of imagination!

You appear in me, and speak to me in tongues

once confined without pardon.

And what can I do but—as if for

the very first time—entrench myself

within the impermanence of you?

* * * * * * * * *

NOTE: My first poetry chapbook, From Darkness, Beatitudes, is available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press until April 25, 2014.

Click here to pre-order now!

Finishing Line Press Announces the Publication of My First Poetry Chapbook!

Finishing Line Press proudly announces the publication of my first poetry chapbook, From Darkness, Beatitudes.

It has been an exciting process working toward publication of this small, and very dear to my heart, collection of poetry. It has also been somewhat of an emotional challenge. This chapbook holds the expression of some of my deepest, most haunting, poetic meditations. Somehow, delivering this expression into the hands of others was like tearing out a part of myself and giving it away. Inside of that darkness, however, was beatitude: Release.

This is what the poems in From Darkness, Beatitudes are all about. They are about sitting with the discomfort of the darkness, eyeball to eyeball, and heart to heart. They are about allowing the darkness to touch us, and teach us . . . and finally, to grace us with the gifts that inhabit its deepest crevices. 

The advance sales period begins today and runs approximately six weeks. Pre-sales determine pressrun (the number of copies that will actually be printed), so if you would like to order a copy, please do so soon as that would boost my final pressrun! The price of the chapbook is $14, plus $2.99 for shipping, and pre-orders ship June 21, 2014. You can order online by clicking on the following link:

Click here to pre-order now!

Finishing Line Press is also accepting checks and money orders at:

Finishing Line Press

PO Box 1626

Georgetown, KY 40324

Please send $14 per copy, + $2.99 shipping per copy

By Mail Only: If you are ordering multiple copies, shipping is $2.99 for the first copy, and $1.99 for each additional copy.

* * * * * * * * *

Here is what some writers/editors have to say about From Darkness, Beatitudes:

The lyrical language and subtly drawn message in Nevine Sultan’s poetry reaches in and pulls one inside out, exposing the nerve endings—open, raw, and trembling, to the outside world. Conversely, there is an intimacy in her work, finding only You and She and The Other, a trio of long lost losses and long lost founds, together whispering discoveries ancient and future, known and unknown. Nevine’s poetry is approachable yet ethereal, poignant yet not over-wrought. A fine collection I will read again and again. — Kathryn Magendie, Publishing Editor of Rose & Thorn and author of The Lightning Charmer

Nevine Sultan’s From Darkness, Beatitudes takes the reader on a journey between the line of dreaming and reality, through loss and rebirth, through the greyness of understanding the definition of life. The opening poem, “Freefalling,” begins the whirlwind as we are left helpless and may only witness that around us: “I do not mean to see this thing / this most private of commissions. / But the eye captures / before the mind receives.” This catapults the imagination into places between lightness and darkness—and everything in-between. — Nick Sweeney, Assistant Editor of The Summerset Review

Nevine Sultan’s slender collection generously renders the visceral impact of nocturnal experience that resists the harshness of light. Reveling in the fresh perspective of darkness, the vital signs of life are born midst the shadows. Here steep the haunting questions, the rippling consequences, the oxymoronic beauty of fractured frames. — Judy Wilson, author of Trespass and other Stories and Founding Editor of Yellow Medicine Review

Cover Photo: Natural Justice by Vincent Sanchez

Click here to pre-order now!

Mutiny

Pleiades, Max Ernst

Some words

are not written, but rinsed,

by the ink of earth and eternity,

gathering the daylight and parsing the night.

Observe their movement

across the ether,

Their phosphorescence

as they trespass the armor of fear,

Their sexuality, coiled—and

breathless—as they remain unspoken.

Observe how they pull the light

inside their chambers.

Observe how they paint themselves

out of the shadows.

Observe how their silence cuts me.

Myrrh and Metanoia

Dark Abstraction, Georgia O'Keeffe

I will hold this moment

as though it were a visitation

from angels fallen

out of the heavens—fallen

into grace—and crying

in noiseless symphony.

Here is my open body.

Here is my uncut hair.

Here is the drunken spiral

of metamorphosis.

Here is the ritual incense

of salvation.

Here…

do not weep

Here…

the crimson tulip.

And here…

the dried up wounds,

faceted with oxidation.

do not wax indignant

Here…

an ingress.

And here…

a perforation

in the perfection

of empty platitudes.

understand

And here, too…

prayer—seated in quietude

upon my ribs—waiting for the

lamps of the sky to be illuminated.

* Words in italics from Baruch Spinoza