The Paddock Review

Ars Poetica

….

Childhood summers playing pool in my cousin’s basement,

…..I could never sink the eight ball if I aimed directly

for it. Instead, periphery. I learned the verb ricochet. 

*

With every shake of a snow globe, the orb clouds and then clears.

…..I watch as tiny glittering flakes settle, never the same 

way twice, but who can tell? No wonder tears can mean sadness, or not. 

*

It’s quiet, the silent space between words, what’s left to my 

…..imagination. I paint with that silence, bright brilliant hues. 

Every night, Northern Lights. Colors of what we could have been.

…..

This poem is from the chapbook Somehow, here by Katherine Dizon (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/somehow-here-by-katherine-dizon/

Somehow, here is a collection of poems interested in looking back at the “here” then as well as the “here” now, and with the disorientation one feels in a new place—whether that’s moving to a new state for college, or as a 30-something not recognizing the person you’ve become and wanting to trace the path back. The “here” also indicates a giving: through life’s challenges, we persevere and still have something to offer the world—ourselves, our stories, our talents. The collection contains imagery from science or the natural world juxtaposed beside human experiences of loss or transformation. The poems have a conversational tone, inviting the reader into narrative experiences that reveal lyric tensions, exploring the experiences of first falling in love with both a person but more importantly the creative life.These are poems of having, and losing, and ultimately finding one’s way back to herself.