Ascension
/Kimberly Gibson-Tran
after Charles Wright
At dawn an effervescence circles the lily-padded pond,
pricking the backs of frogs that leap, mewling, into the spittle-starred black.
Dust. Sunlight. Ten striped miles edge by
and a hundred little beasts have died since daybreak between the zebra trees.
Now and then we force ourselves to eat, adjust our packs.
A wormy goblin of the woods, hundred shuffling feet,
attacks our scraps, moves on. Patches of charred saplings
crumble under controlled burn, send up smoke from a hellscape.
Branches crack the air, and here a devil’s slacked and left its skin.
Spiderwebs, millions, break crystal threads across our hair.
Ahead, the mountain waits. We cast our nets, ascend.
Commentary on The Poems: I'm fascinated by poetic influences and apprompted poems. In fact, I wrote my linguistics master's thesis "Lines by Someone Else" about the risks poets take by referencing a text connection with a predecessor. We all come "after" others, and these three poems represent conversations I've had with "Spider Crystal Ascension" by Charles Wright, "The Bear," by Galway Kinnell, and Richard Hugo's classic training manual for young poets: The Triggering Town. I feel so deeply about these works. They keep speaking to me, and I keep trying to answer. I don't mind if my signalling the text connections makes my poems seem less original--that's part of the bargain of declaring an influence. I hope I'm creating a tempting opportunity for the reader to fall in love with them too.
Bio: Kimberly Gibson-Tran has writing appearing or forthcoming in The Bombay Literary Magazine, Passages North, Third Coast, Dunes Review, Reed Magazine, Rowayat, Jelly Squid, Saranac Review, Thin Air Magazine, Saw Palm, and elsewhere. Raised in Thailand, she now lives in Princeton, Texas, and works in college counseling.
