Kiki Petrosino: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

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Instructions for Time Travel

 

You must go through Mr. Jefferson

along his row of chinaberry trees

 

behind the ruined smokehouse

in unmarked tracts, under fieldstones

 

with no carvings, no monuments

with a few leaves shadowing the mulch

 

near scattered weeds, in sunken lines

while the sun walks in the day

 

at the end of the day

in an oval of brushed earth

 

just as the soft path finishes

under branches

 

where the dead are always saying

what they always say:

 

Write about me.

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Kiki Petrosino is the author of White Blood: a Lyric of Virginia (2020) and three other poetry books, all from Sarabande. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her memoir, Bright, was released from Sarabande in 2022. She directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia, where she is a Professor of Poetry. Petrosino is the recipient of a DeWitt Wallace/Readers Digest fellowship from MacDowell artist residency, a Pushcart Prize, a Fellowship in Creative Writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, the UNT Rilke Prize, & the Spalding Prize, among other honors.

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                                                    Isaac Jefferson (1775-1853). See this link for more.

 

Comments

[Jiwon Choi]

Masterfully haunting. I appreciate all the history and emotion contained in this economy forward piece.

[Cindy Hochman]

Oh my. What a lovely, gentle, poignant poem. I love the couplet form and all the vivid details. And that last line will certainly resonate with all of us of the literary persuasion (and everybody else). I'm an instant fan, Kiki, and once again, thank you for bringing us such wonderful poetry, Terence.

[Ann Bracken]

Wonderful imagery!

[Anne Harding Woodworth]

Beautifiul, Kiki Petrosino. No carvings, no monuments. And the photograph of Mr. Jefferson calls out to us, perhaps in the imperative of the last line.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Cindy.

[Bill Nevins]

Strong, understated and brilliant.

where the dead are always saying

what they always say:

Write about me.

[lally]

hauntingly, piercingly brilliant poem

[Grace Cavalieri]

How softly Kiki names harsh truths. And to say someone's name is a holy act..and in poetry...even more.

[Don Berger]

Kiki Petrosino you've hit it out of the park!!! (Baseball lingo to communicate excellence, true power!)
I'm going to go to Monticello this summer and will take your poem and read it there to whoever's with me, whoever's near.

Thanks for treating us to this Mr. Winch!

[Elinor Nauen]

Kiki Petrosino ~ a true poet. Thanks for this ravishing (in all senses) poem.

[Terence Winch]

Prof. Berger: thanks for the comment.

[Eileen Reich]

Beautiful, haunting poem.

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

So softly sorrowful and lovely.

[Richard Giannone]

KP's poem is a way of freeing Isaac Jefferson from being alone and forgotten. It's a love poem that reminds us love is freedom or it is not love. I love the poem and Isaac's presence. The worst has already happened for Isaac.

[Terence Winch]

Richard---thanks for the comment. It's always a treat to hear your voice.

[Jeffrey Cyphers Wright]

Deadly sweet with killer end. What the living say too.

[David Beaudouin]

What an amazing poem--how such a light touch could deliver that extraordinary impact. Brava, Kiki and thanks, Terence!

[Clarinda]

A marvel of gut piercing understatements. And the art piece— I will never b able to unsee it. Not that I’d wish to—