LOCUSPOINT | Lawrence | JUDITH ROITMAN

LAWRENCE, KANSAS 31 OCTOBER 2007
LAWRENCE poets First edition Editor's Note: Joseph Harrington Anne Boyer Cyrus Console Joseph Harrington Jim McCrary Judy Roitman K. Silem Mohammad Kennth Irby William J. Harris poetry resources in LAWRENCE Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate The Lawrence Journal-World and News The Lawrencian Lawrence Public Library Lawrence Arts Center Raven Bookstore University of Kansas University of Kansas MFA Program Haskell Indian Nations University First Intensity First Intensity Press Mammoth Publications OTHER CURRENT LOCI BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS MADISON PHOENIX ST LOUIS SEATTLE VANCOUVER ABOUT LOCUSPOINT About the LOCUSPOINT Project Managing Editor's Letter Join our Mailing List	Judy Roitman FIVE POEMS Slipped Out Distinct In What Hand Sixth Cosmogony Seventh Cosmogony About Judith Roitman Slipped out Tongue undeserved like popcorn & what thing in the middle of her trajectory her rigid moment mashed like popcorn & death also wanting whose words who says this today whose tongue slipped out like a walk like the middle of talking, one cane held onto one moment of trajectory one undeserved cough stopped, standing left out of corners instead difficult instead wanting instead slipped out & death slipped out undeserved cane touching today trajectory today talking in the middle of breathing today wanting popcorn wanting trajectory wanting stopped thing stopped from becoming. Distinct before not finding anywhere everything everywhere place & time distinct unglued associate. In what hand in what hand the mirror held the surface altered? Sixth cosmogony Light into heat form spreading into itself within the room shiver & consequence all space differentiated. Within ease already turning you cannot catch it in this way flowers and trains the last dog stepped into the vacuum all space arising. Preshadowing circular moment to rest therein as cradled such ease the hand trailing from the boat relaxed fingers as eddies form and within them. Call and shadow as sound needs medium her hair swept into corners shaping room as sky invisible unending within the bird's nest no takers. No takers resting within shadow each turn unending & various as light and breath resolve within each other eyes turned to follow. Such delicacy of ears and fingers each toe accounted for and the myriad vessels hidden nothing lost. All is not lost each piece of wood fitted the eye rests on pattern & breath carried head still heart moment air shaped patternless as floor just as unknowable. Hand reaching hand deep breath & pause before: irrevocable. Seventh cosmogony Inside vision erupted beings as if staring too long eyes motionless all things stripped of existence what you are looking at forgotten but disturbance always and concomitant pressure. His material movements. His exerted forms. Mind trapped within mind each purported exit another dream as if burnt-out walls within walls and the careful step to avoid debris. Snap of firelight the wooden moth her eyes messages cannot be avoided far edge of trees calling and cockroaches, the movement of ants, ruin and divination. Suffering the presence of others. Glue come undone. Politeness raised to epic levels, the effort, no one can tell who is the postman. Your twin, your pet, such easy manipulations each thing called into existence before dismissed. Foot so light they thought no-one home as if floating such extreme care you cannot be too cautious every thing checked out the belly of the sheep—"I have stayed in these mountains too long, I do not remember my home." JUDITH ROITMAN was born and raised in New York City. After living in the San Francisco Bay area and near Boston, she moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1978, where she is professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas. She is the author of three chapbooks: The stress of meaning (Standing Stones Press), Diamond notebooks (nominative press collective), and Slippage (Potes & Poets Press). Her work has appeared in many journals, including First Intensity, Skanky Possum, Black Spring, FO A RM, Spectaculum, and Imagination & Place. Work is forthcoming in First Intensity, Bird Dog, and Crane's Bill Books, and a book is forthcoming from First Intensity Press. She is married to the translator and classicist Stanley Lombardo, and has a son and granddaughter. She is the guiding teacher of the Kansas Zen Center.

	BOYER \| CONSOLE \| HARRINGTON \| HARRIS \| IRBY \| McCRARY \| MOHAMMAD \| ROITMAN