Sonnets in Utriculi

Dear Friends,

I’m delighted to report that I have five sonnets in Utriculi, a new online literary annual.

Even better, the cover image for Utriculi is a drawing by my Substack friend,

Jean Vengua

of Eulipion Outpost. Serendipity and community.

I’m realizing as I write that I have some trepidation in sharing some of these poems here. They operate in a different way from the work I usually send you.

After a long breakup with poetry in the early two thousands (more on that to come) I’ve kept my poetry practice and publishing quiet for some time. I hadn’t realized just how quiet until a good friend mentioned recently that he didn’t think he’d ever read one of my poems. I was astonished!

I keep thinking of the Zen Peacemaker Order’s way of seeing the eighth Bodhisattva precept: “Using all of the ingredients of my life. This is the precept of Not Being Stingy.”

Today, I’m allowing myself to be inspired by the new name for this letter, Free Words. What could possibly need to be hidden or kept offstage?

— Sal

---

---

Note

I wrote a preamble with the story of how these were written and how readers might approach them, but I’m saving that for another occasion. For now, I hope you’ll playfully enjoy these without much expectation.

If the lines break awkwardly in your email or on your phone, try going straight to Utriculi.

---

Two Sonnets from “Urgency Reader”

XVIII


Where celebrate doubt with me make what wants
was not confirmation might be found lost

singing here alone would carry over
lost again again won’t many then fear

home none of unto trees shade unlikely 
holding ephemeral breaks me my arm

my fear don’t know disease don’t know voices
have time my now will never no caress

not break will take maybe voices my mouth
feeling no reason not impossible
 
with me now knows as knows me makeshift who
has last questioned be having together 

does to find close standing moments awkward
knew at times how should this minimum know. 

---

XIX


Closer how much longer might if alone
could my house out of there see nothing out

where does except be alone can’t instead
couldn’t still lead back to worse before sleep

have attention used to fall close running
out can take what underneath the limits

might if living in where else consolation
from before can’t be when going back was

ever trust holding won’t be through so close
blindly in wearing off everyone lost

inside for weeks thrown in advice as yet
still here reasoning human don’t believe

why not am gone down now with loneliness
down feels everyone how won’t believe this.

---

Utriculi

Utriculi is named for “the larger of the two fluid-filled cavities forming part of the labyrinth of the inner ear,” and is a journal of “experimental literature and art that push[es] boundaries.” It is free to read online, or to download.

You’ll find three more sonnets from this series there: Utriculi.

---

More Sonnets

I began writing sonnets at an invitation from my dear friend, Jeff Dolven.

Early sonnets from this series appeared in Queer.Archive.Work’s Urgency Reader 2: Mutual Aid Publishing During Crisis. The sonnet-sequence “Urgency Reader” was named for this project by

Paul Soulellis

.

You also can find more from this sonnet series in jubliat.

---

I’d love to hear from you!

---

---

Further adventures and new ways of seeing can be found in my book, The Uses of Art.

Artist Sal Randolph’s THE USES OF ART is a memoir of transformative encounters with works of art, inviting readers into new methods of looking that are both liberating and emboldening.

Dazzlingly original, ferociously intelligent.
— Michael Cunningham

A joyful, dazzling treasure-box of a book.
— Bonnie Friedman

Here’s a guide, to waking up, over and over again.
— Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara