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Bird Bones
Defer to silence
that which bellows, howls,
mad dances beneath a pale faced moon.
Still its antics, whispering
balm to its broken places,
smoothing in a healing heat
with warmed and silken palms.
It is a letting go, this
slow untangle of folded fingers,
unclenching the clench,
unbinding the willfully bound,
lifting into air that which no longer
nestles in the safe nest of an unpeeled heart.
Unfold its yet damp and crumpled wings,
fluttering with fear of nearing discovery
and uncharted brilliance
until,
breath catching
with the iced shock of impossible altitudes,
the stony weight of body on air
lifts, carries, holds aloft
in jagged yet blissful ascent,
patient as bones,
as clean and white,
bleached by old hope
still etched into its airy shape.
Woman in Waves by V. Aistars (poet's father)
The Act of Drowning
She is born of the foam, the spittle and spume
of the sea, sand grit collecting in the seashell coils
of her ears, pearls tucked inside the pink of her palms.
This is the baptism of her father's desire,
his washing into and through her mother
earth, globe of molten fire at core,
and a narrow hope renewed.
Her father's gentle and most tender
violence, a passion veiled
by night and broken stars
littering the black bowl,
the soup of midnight sky,
and weeping, weeping an endless grief,
a blistering burn of sorrow,
a longing luminous and lasting
through the thrum and split
of the heart breaking open like overripe fruit
too long in the sun.
Such is love.
Echoed, recalled,
of the kind that drowns
and leaves the lungs gasping for air,
for the salt of the earth,
begging for benediction.
Zinta Aistars is the published author of three books. She is an editor and writer for LuxEsto,
the Kalamazoo College alumni magazine and contributing writer to Encore magazine. Her work has also
appeared in the Kalamazoo Guide, Kalamazoo Gazette, Welcome Home and Parade of Homes magazines.
She has published poetry, travel essays, stories, and articles in the United States, Latvia,
England, Sweden, Germany, and Australia. Her work also appears on many e-zines - including
Ash Canyon Review, Spoiled Ink, 63Channels.com (featured writer in upcoming Aug/Sept 2005 issue),
HerCircleEzine (upcoming September 2005 issue), The Redbridge Review, River Walk Journal,
Flashquake, milk magazine, The Surface, Serene Light, Word Riot, Burning Word, The Moon,
insolent rudder, Bobbing Around, coilMagazine, Poems Neiderngasse, The Paper, Poetry Life & Times,
QuietPoly Writer's Magazine, Midwest Book Review, WriteSight and others. Her poetry appears
in the literary anthology, Persistence of Dreams, compiled by Redbridge Review. Zinta has
recently completed her second collection of poetry, Tumbleweed Waltz.
Viestarts Aistars has had his artwork (oils, watercolors, etchings, pencil drawings)
exhibited at the Detroit Art Museum, Indiana Art Center in Indianapolis and South Bend,
Indiana, the Kalamazoo Art Institute, Grand Rapids Art Museum, as well as Latvian art
exhibits in Seattle, Washington, New York City, Reading, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland,
Ohio, to name only a few. He has had over 50 one-man art exhibits in the Midwest and
Eastern United States, including Boston, New York City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus,
Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Saginaw,
Grand Rapids, and many other cities nationwide. He has won numerous prizes and his work
has been purchased by countless private collectors, also by the State Museum in Riga,
Latvia, the Art Museum in Jelgava, Latvia. A painting of a Latvian woman in folk costume
hangs today in the Riga Pils (Riga Castle), the president's residence in Riga, Latvia.
More of his work and information about the artist can be found at:
Artist Site
or Email at Zeenythe Communications
Email Zinta Aistars
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