A Genesis of Light, by Annette Sisson

Ex Nihilo, by Frederick Hart (USA) 1978-1984. Photo by Ad Meskens. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

A Genesis of Light
written in response to Frederick Hart, American sculptor (1943-1999)​

Ex Nihilo

Inorganic matter swirls a body
into being, a leg’s half-defined 
quadricep, head trailing chaos, 
organizing itself into consciousness.
Hair spreads like peacock tails; 
figures surge from the provident source, 
evolving agency, vitality, spirit, 
an ideal human form. Wheels 
of arms, branching fingers, a spiraling 
constellation of want, like a knee bent, 
an elbow raised, a mouth sharp 
with desire. Caught in a genesis of light.

​

​Daughters of Odessa

Fated daughters of Tsar Nicholas,
bronzed, rendered oddly translucent.
They compel and transfix, exude 
life and death. A film of opaque 

gown trails a body somehow 
entirely visible—knee caps, 
thighs, belly and navel, hip 
bones, rib cage, clavicle,

breasts. Array of diaphanous 
fluttering folds, thick locks 
twisting behind, four girls 
sidle, trace a circle, hands 

lifted, almost joined, sweeping
the air, ecstatic, dancing their innocence 
into death. They move as corona, 
aureole. They become the light 

that stirs their bodies, thins bronze
to enigma of sheen, to bare luminosity, 
spinning their lives into beatitude, 
into the breathing origin of flame.

​

Annette Sisson

Annette Sisson is Professor of English at Belmont University. Last week she was named one of seven Fellows of the 2020 BOAAT Writer’s Retreat, which resulted from a national competition. In June 2019 she won The Porch Writing Collective’s poetry contest (regional) and was awarded honorable mention in Passager Magazine’s spring 2019 national poetry contest. Recent publications include Rockvale Review, Nashville Review, Passager Magazine, Typishly, One, and Hamilton Stone Review--and she has poems forthcoming in The Blue Mountain Review, KAIROS, and SPANK the CARP. Her chapbook, A Casting Off, was published by Finishing Line Press (May 2019). Annette enjoys traveling, hiking, supporting theatre and serving on the Board of the Nashville Children’s Theater, watching the birds at her feeders, baking, playing the piano, reading, and writing. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband, dog, and a small flock of hens.

Daughters of Odessa, sculpture by Frederick Hart (USA) 1998. Photo by Emily Keafer (USA) 2006. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)