Poetry: Ars Poetica by Divyasri Krishnan
Divyasri Krishnan’s “Ars Poetica” perfectly balances the pastoral image of a flighty canary with the urban one of languishing on a train. These two central scenes build a sense of tension, an ode to liminal life spaces– to the “beauty in the interval.”
Ars Poetica
Canary I am sending you into the world.
Forgive me. It is an American affliction
to mortgage every scrap of grace.
A man on a train loses to sleep.
His head falls towards the fetal as a tree
bows in a strong wind,
yearning towards a beginning.
These days what is left to me is inadequate, or else
my hungers have grown.
Will you return to me, little winged life? I await you
as the Benedictines awaited God, creating
so much beauty in the interval.
Divyasri Krishnan
Divyasri Krishnan studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work appears in DIAGRAM, Muzzle Magazine, Annulet, Dunes Review, and elsewhere. Her work has further been recognized by the Best of the Net, Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, Periplus Collective, Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, and Palette Poetry.
