Synkroniciti is pleased to welcome back poet Joseph R. Larsen of Houston, Texas, with “Lines,” a poem concerning the patterns and significant events of a marriage. As we age, these patterns are encoded into our appearance and our perceptions, paying witness to a shared story that others may sense, if they are emotionally sensitive, but not comprehend, with plot points that are invisible to the outside observer.
A trip to the airport makes him aware of the passage of time, both its value and its finite nature.
“The frustration at taking this trip alone,/ There are only so many trips—they are numbered,/ Fantasy destinations, fantasy fits/ Of ecstasy following all night fights,/ He saw these things on his wife’s face.”
We don’t know the particulars, and Joe doesn’t elaborate, but we sense the history and feel a complex combination of love, sorrow and regret indicative of the landscape between them. His restraint makes the emotional impact all the more intense and mysterious. Personal events are as cataclysmic and inexorable as natural forces.
“The collision that created the moon,/ Slow drift of the Continent,/ The ruin at Montaillou,/ A blend of rouge and noir…”
Read “Lines” in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, Vol. 7, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Joseph R. Larsen’s poetry has been featured in publications as varied as Dope Fiend Daily, Chaos Dive Reunion by Mutabilis Press, Equinox by hotpoet, Synkroniciti, Blonde on Blonde, North Country, The Panhandler, Spiky Palm, Ekphrastic Review and Texas Lawyer. When he is not restlessly writing, Larsen practices law including defending First Amendment rights. He was honored in 2010 by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas with its James Madison Award.