or fractals of moose antlers
velveted in spring,
rising into copper sky—
ishpiming.
The water-winged
unreality of delicately scored
and mottled lily pads,
olive and crimson mandalas—
a scatter graph across
the impossible the blue.
These discs of foliage,
tessellations of bone.
Their submerged rhizomes—
ours, how they tattoo us
with the script
of place,
with language shapes
root-deep—
with knowing.
Kimberly Blaeser, 2015-2016 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Copper Yearning and the bi-lingual Résister en dansant/Dancing Resistance. Anishinaabe from White Earth Reservation, Blaeser is a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy and serves on the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission.
April 2021
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.