Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome writer and artist Elder Gideon from California. Two elegant and arresting poems are featured in our new “Space” issue. “Ein; No thing (ness)” is a visual poem dealing with the nature of God, the immense space that is no thing, “a source no one’s/ named.” Acknowledging the limits of language and time, Gideon uses internal space, as well as shading and line, to layer words in a way that leads the mind into contemplation. What he leaves unsaid, trembling just below the surface, is perhaps more important than what he reveals. The second poem. “We know this, right?,” is a delicate form consisting of two stanzas of three short lines, each stanza a fragment of a question concerning the otherness of ourselves and our planet, that our roots come from beyond our place in the universe. Words are symbols and Gideon uses them like mystic runes, touchstones for the mind to use in pondering reality.
“My love of language began with scripture. I noted how often its verse is set within prose. This means that the speaker is singing. Such songs! When I began to study classical Hebrew, I learned that the songs say more than religion allows.”
Experience Gideon’s enigmatic poetry in Synkroniciti’s November 30th issue, “Space,” Vol. 5, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Twice nominated for the 2023 Pushcart Prize, Elder Gideon is the author of three poetry collections—Sophia’s Wisdom (forthcoming with EPS Press), Gnostic Triptych and Aegis of Waves (Atmosphere Press)—and co-author with Tau Malachi of Gnosis of Guadalupe (EPS Press, 2017). His poems, essays, and sculptures have appeared in dozens of journals. He’s an alumnus of the 2022 Kenyon Review Summer Conference and the 2021 Community of Writers.