“National Poetry Month” #17: Kim Minkus
3 nonets from “24 Nonets After Reading Edward Byrne’s
Sonnets: Louise Labé”
7
Lying spirit tightly strung
you are most dangerous
with all the points of your desire
I come gently into hazard
pure terrible burning pain
half hard – the other cruel
a thousand parts to cry over
afternoons of grief
cruel and therefore the best part
15
Pretty bruises dance flowers
coloured air for miles spill
somber nerves my forest
I haven’t longed so
for anything
the birds – trees – compete
disturbances rub marvelously
and my splinters remind me
that I’m beautiful to the gods
21
What makes me vulnerable
a voice perhaps a shaded eye
made more lovely by love
a singer a voice sullen
plays incurable once more
till then I keep a place
held for you in my heart
such fine arts given by nature
are given for conquest
Welcome to the world of Kim Minkus’s Tuft, where worker, lover, animal and poet unite.
KIM MINKUS is the author of 9 Freight (2007) and Thresh (2009). She has had reviews, poetry and fiction published in The Capilano Review, FRONT Magazine, West Coast Line, The Poetic Front, and Jacket. Kim is currently a Creative Writing instructor at Capilano University and a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University.
