There s a lot of wisdom here, and compassion. Her elegant lyrics are spiritual meditations that accommodate uncertainties with a pure gaze, honest and human, undogmatic as the dawn. It s a rare gift to be able to make a reader enter a poem on the same footing. Notations on the Visible World is an extraordinary and rewarding book. Jordan Kathleen Wakefield s serene but determined voice is a welcome, long-overdue departure from the din of apologetic and noncommittal poets.
Violets bloom at the edge of the lawn like the purple release of blood under the skin.
Kyrie , says the flicker, all desire and beginning. I doubt it. This understory of gauzy brush not yet shaken out is a shimmering scarcely achieved. The woods are full of it, rain falling like a part of speech nearly forgotten, like grace notes from a page of music held in the mind until now. It was a litany with purpose, a near monotone that played and leapt to its conclusion in spite of my foolishness, white flames dancing on a glassy table top.