Nathan Miller
A response to Maggie Jaszczak
Left
there is plenty of summer left
there is plenty of summer
left
there is plenty
of summer left
there is plenty of
summer left
there is
plenty
of summer
left
there
is
plenty
of summer
left there
is plenty of
summer left
there is plenty of summer left
there is plenty of summer
Place de la Concorde
Ferris wheel stops
slice in a moment
of incandescent youth
resting in cradle sways
of movement anticipated
away and back to beginnings
left behind in darkest July
but here a moment to taste
an orbital pause of roulette spin
apexual transcendence held,
lever clicks goodbye
a breath of firework breeze
pulling upward through
silent bearing calm
metal fills small voids
between sweating palms
and kettle corn bursts
of blue night memory
Arrangements
the saddest of these must go
the saddest of
these must go
the saddest of these
must go
just pluck off dead leaves and rinse
the saddest
of these must go
the saddest of these must go
the saddest of these must
go
just p l u c k off deadleaves and rinse
the saddest of these must go
the saddest
of these
must go
the
saddest
of
these
must
go
just pluck off
dead leaves
and rinse
here and here and here
Process Notes
I am fascinated with the use of texture and sense of decay in Maggie Jaszksakc's pieces. “Left” was written after a conversation with my mother in the morning where she said that line in reference to my garden producing. The sculpture reminded me of oven mitts and nourishment, and also of mittens weathered in past winters.“Place de la Concorde” began as a poem with a visualization of a slice of a Ferris wheel I felt in Jaszkzac’s piece, and became something more.“Arrangements” came from seeing both hair combs and flower arranging frogs in the prompt, and then tidying up a small flower bouquet in my dining room the day I wrote the piece.
Responses to Maggie Jaszczak's Work
Nathan Miller
Nathan Miller is an undergraduate creative writing student at the University of Iowa, and is originally from rural Western Pennsylvania.