Kiss Over Zero by George David Clark

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 5, 2015   Kiss Over Zero   George David Clark

anything over zero is zero anything over one is itself   a bed over zero is a funhouse mirror aimed   at a cloudy sky a sky and its clouds over zero   a storm over one is an infinite storm   a night over one is a kiss over zero   and the minute hand eating its tail is a red ear on a wet pillow   the memory of laughter is a lamp over one   one inhales before one sighs a lamp over zero is zero   the hole in a satin sheet slowly ate up the yellow   till splitting the hem the hole was unleashed   like a kiss a long kiss over zero            Copyright © 2015 by George David Clark. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I teach a course on contemporary poetry in translation and recently one of my students shared an interesting interpretation of a line in Bei Dao. She read ‘over’ as shorthand for ‘divided by,’ and while I wasn’t convinced Dao intended or benefitted from such a resonance (does the Chinese preposition share that mathematical connotation?), both the conceit of division and the difference between math’s equals sign (exact) and metaphor’s ‘is’ (messy) seemed rich to me. Anyway, this gave me a roundabout way of approaching a scene and a feeling that I couldn’t get at directly.” —George David Clark   George David Clark is the author of Reveille (University of Arkansas Press, 2015). He teaches at Valparaiso University and lives in Northwest Indiana. Most Recent Book by Clark   Reveille (University of Arkansas Press, 2015) "The Translator’s Dilemma" by Ann Lauterbach "?" by Randall Mann "Water Music" by Robert Creeley Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038