A Moment, by ​Jocelyn Ajami

Excavation, by Willem de Kooning (USA) 1950

​A Moment 

I dash across one’s eye, leaving 
traces of flight and fervor
the fleeting calligraphy of life

I am eagle, plane and angel
marking time with strokes 
of moments, yarrow stalks

hurled on fresh soil
defining the configuration 
of gesture and emotion

an irrefutable instant. I am 
a geological wonder, multilayered 
like the earth, polysemous 

like The Divine Comedy
layer upon layer of sediment
sentiment and stories

scraping away bits of blood, blue
bone and jaw. You can’t confine 
me to a corner

or a windstorm. I expand beyond 
fury, beyond the train tracks 
the rice field and the willow

I am fish and femur, monsoon
and sky, chaos and order, evolving
from the toss of a coin

​Jocelyn Ajami 

Jocelyn Ajami is an award winning painter, filmmaker and poet. Her publications include The New Verse News, Eunoia Review, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, and several anthologies of prize winning poems. She received first prize from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies  for her poem, "Un Deseo" (2018). She was nominated for Touchstone and Pushcart Awards for "Truce or Truth" (2023) and received  the Taisho Award (Grand Prize) from the Kusamakura International Haiku competition (2024). She turned to writing poetry in 2014 as a way of connecting more intimately with issues of social conscience and cultural awareness.