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Spiral Orb Fifteen Camille Acker

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Mantodea Praying mantis Robin Reynolds Afternoons flow like warm honey, the sun a soft scar in such a celebration of sky, a hush holds me sweetly like spring and summer have fallen in love and cannot stop holding hands. Even a river could lose its way but there is no river here, only dust swirling between tufted grass and silence swelling wide like a secret that everybody already Amaris Feland Ketcham occupies her time with open space, white space, CMYK, flash nonfiction, long trails, f-stops, line breaks, and several Adobe programs running simultaneously. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her book of poems about the Sandia Mountains is available from Finishing Line Press.

Cicada – Camille Acker Online Flip Book / Download Back to our Information Page In the dank of DC’s summer heat, cicadas scaled the heights of oak trees, vocal and untrained trapeze artists. But their shells, discarded and crumpled like candy wrappers, clogged drains and littered the sides of the road. Noisy hidden thicket banquet, systematic berry gorge amidst muffled chuckles of codorniz, no quail, mimic chortles of verdín, no verdin, single churp of carpintero escapulario, no flicker, All this ruckus, only phainopeplas, and mimic phantom friends carefully chosen, not random Picoides scalaris Ladder-backed woodpecker Elisabeth Loya I feel the sun rise and hear the world crackle to life as the still of night gives way to morning. In the desert, the nights are cold, the days are hot, and the time between them hums. I shake my feathers within the confines of my home, a hole in the husk of a cactus that I carved with my own beak. I look at my mate – he helped, and

An Interview with Camille Acker

Green and Pink Fractal Orb Fifteen Digital Art by Elisabeth Lucas ...

Allison Layfield is from northern California, and her poetry has been published in Delirious Hem, New Delta Review, and Lingerpost. She received her MFA from New Mexico State University, and her PhD in 20th and 21st Century American literature from Purdue University. She lives, writes and works in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Sections (words, phrases, lines) of each poem published in Spiral Orb are embedded with hyperlinks to other poems in Spiral Orb. A composite poem including a fragment from each piece in Spiral Orb serves as the entry piece and table of contents. Hence, Spiral Orb is an experiment in juxtaposition, interrelationships, and intertextuality. The short story “Cicada” by Camille Acker has a chronological plot structure. The story presents a day in the life of a young girl who is going to a piano competition. The mention of cicadas in the beginning and ending of the narrative, offers the story a circular structure. The main character is Ellery, a young black girl who comes from a working-class family. Another important character

Chaetodipus eremicus Chihuahuan desert pocket mouse Alice Wallace I wonder if we have met or was it a dream you scampering across my brow as I slept beneath the stars on the desert floor among the creosote and mesquite. Would you tell me of your nocturnal foraging how you brush away the dirt with your tiny front paws leap and hop with kangarooish back feet you are related

Urocyon cinereoargenteus Gray fox Linda Broda Pribble I moved to the Organ Mountains Region of Las Cruces, New Mexico, one year ago. A new wild landscape I now call home. Hawks flying overhead, roadrunners darting across the street, lizards scurrying under rocks. The natural and the wild meet more closely here than the suburb of Chicago where I grew up. Last March I

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Ungnadia speciosa Mexican buckeye Jon Zebrowski AS AUTUMN, YOU WAIT. IN AWKWARD OFFWIDTHS, DIHEDRALS OF THE CHIHUAHIAN CRAGS, WHERE ROCK FALLS AWAY, AND BARE BRANCHES, PODS, DEEP IN THE DANCE OF SUN, ROCK, AND COBALT. A GREEN RESPITE, AS ROOTED TENDRILS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DROUGHT-RIDDEN

Spiral Orb Yucca elata Soaptree yucca Andrea Blancas Beltran root-locked ghost inside a view the moon’s chosen whorl (long) before the state’s soapweed lean into sundry directions reveals the way: (be) ancestors (scatter) across / artificial borderlines, / see? the death rattle (lives) in every one until its season ripens with b l o o m Spring had exploded in the Chihuahuan desert, which is colder and wetter than the Sonoran. Cactus flowers bloomed next to perennials such as Datura—a favorite of the artist Georgia O’Keefe. Lizards had come out of hibernation hungry for meals of aphids, beetles, flies, ants, wasps, termites and any other insect that can be taken by surprise. A Tree lizard’s life of two to Spotted bats’ genius far exceeds the famous Brazilian Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) and Fringed Bats (Myotis thysanodes) whose habitat is the Carlsbad Caverns National Park farther east from our beautiful region in south-central New Mexico. Those are show-off bats in contrast with our Euderma maculatum species whose intelligence is superior to those other bats. A few

Sahara Fractal Orb Fifteen Digital Art by Elisabeth Lucas - Fine Art ...

Kerry Banazek is an Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University, where she teaches in the Rhetoric, Digital Media, and Professional Communication programs. Her research and creative work address the many ways in which technologies of vision and data management influence language use.

I am male about 2 inches long with light brown scales. I like being this color because it camouflages me from any hungry predators that might be lurking nearby. In a few months, my body color will change. My backside will turn grayish-brown with orange, yellow, and white specks so I still remain invisible in sand and gravel. However, on my underside, there will be two

Crotalus molossus Black-tailed rattlesnake Bud Russo I’m Crotalus molossus — An Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Regular It was cold this morning when I awoke in our Organ Mountain den, snuggling with my cousins and friends. A bunch of us decided to bunk together this winter, just to keep warm. I like it here in the mountains, although some of my cousins prefer Arizona, Michael Thomas is an anthropologist and novelist retired from UNM. He is a New Mexico boy having been born in Raton. He spent most of his life in New Mexico (Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Socorro). He now lives with his family in Albuquerque. He considers himself a naturalist and participates in citizen science. What Is Spiral Orb A spiral orb is the type of web that spiders from the family of Araneidae weave. Spiral Orb is also the title of a web poetry journal edited by Eric Magrane. How systems (a poem-system, an eco-system, a human-construct-system like a state or a country, a solar-system, a web-system, a circulatory system, etc.) organize themselves (and are organized) is of great

Spiral Orb Sceloporus magister Desert spiny lizard Helen Harding Spiny Lizards do not fly If they tried they’d surely die. They lurk about upon the ground Scarcely making any sound, Tho‘ one old desert rat proclaims He’s heard them singing when it rains. ~~~~~ Helen Harding was 10 months old when WWII broke out in Europe.

The short story “Mambo Sauce” by Camille Acker begins with Constance, a black woman in a bar full of mostly white people, talking to a white man named Brian. She feels out of place but she likes Brian and they agree to go on a second date. Soon, they are in a serious relationship and when Brian gets a job in Washington DC six months later, Constance moves there with him. In Polioptila melanura Black-tailed gnatcatcher Alexis Springer “O vespering bird, how do you know, How do you know?” — Thomas Hardy To have an eye for such things—small and distant—the black underwings, a summer’s crown, insects emerging from the underbellies of stone; the black-tailed gnatcatcher knows emergence well— swiftly traversing entangled cacti and creosote Camille Acker: That environment absolutely shaped me as a writer. For many years, my mother was an editor at Howard University Press where she worked on books by and about Black people. On the bookshelves were books she edited but also books she and my father had bought, read, and collected since the 1960s.

Rodrigo Figueroa is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at New Mexico State University. He has published two books of poetry in Mexico and one in the United States. He is also a playwright and has published several short stories. His interests as a creative writer include mysticism, social spaces, and corporeality. Peniocerus greggii Night-blooming cereus Chad Crossley We take the potted plant from the office with the lofty goal of driving it out to the desert, home to its own kind. So it can be with its friends, she says. So it won’t be so lonely. Like a ghost. Or rising smoke. Just as a whisper. That’s what I tell her, though I feel she doesn’t grasp it. She can’t fully, after all; thinks they Camille Acker, a Washington, DC native, is an esteemed writer and educator. With degrees from Howard University and New Mexico State University, she’s been recognized by numerous arts programs. Acker co-edited Dismantle: An Anthology and co-founded The Spinsters Union. She’s taught at Chicago Writers Studio and University of Illinois, and currently teaches at New

Lesquerella gordonii Gordon’s bladder pod Lamaia Vaughn You’re an old family friend, spreading sunshine across the gray sand like the pink spots blossoming across my baby daughter’s face. Oh, bringer of beauty, predecessor to the poppy, you gave me hope while silently causing my daughter to drool. A sweet blossom, four yellow petals, every year you did steadily appear Rick Marlatt is an assistant professor of English Language Arts and Literacy at New Mexico State University. His recent work has appeared in numerous publications such as The New York Quarterly, Rattle, and Anthropology & Education Quarterly. His three chapbooks of poetry include How We Fall Apart, winner of the Seven Circle Press Poetry Award, Desired Altitude, winner of

Odocoileus hemionus Mule deer Nancy Hastings i – An Appearance Snow is falling on the highest peaks as light fades in the lower canyons. Two does shadowed by two fawns browse on mountain mahagony, shred twigs from a scrub oak, await an unfurling leaf, a desert sea change. One by one they lunge through drifts, leave, in passing, a faint trace of themselves below the ridgeline. Spotted bats’ genius far exceeds the famous Brazilian Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) and Fringed Bats (Myotis thysanodes) whose habitat is the Carlsbad Caverns National Park farther east from our beautiful region in south-central New Mexico. Those are show-off bats in contrast with our Euderma maculatum species whose intelligence is superior to those other bats. A few

LeeAnn Meadows, born and raised in Humboldt County, California, now calls New Mexico home. She lives on the outskirts of Las Cruces with her artist/husband Glenn Schwaiger and two dogs in an old adobe motel surrounded by pecan trees. Her poetry explores relationships with family, her dogs, and nature.

Spiral Orb Uropygi Vinegaroon Peter Goodman Men say, “anyone so ugly is scary!” And I am, to your pal the scorpion. Our battles beat mixed-martial-arts all hollow. No rules, no quarter, but a damned good supper for me. I try to keep out of your way, emerge rarely, except after rains grace the desert. I hunt while you dream. The following is from Camille Acker’s collection, Training School for Negro Girls. The collection explores the irony and tragicomedy of „respectability“ and the role it plays in the lives of a wide-ranging cast of characters. Camille Acker’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Hazlitt and VICE, among others, and received support from the Norman Mailer Writers