First Step, by John Claiborne Isbell

Kroisos Kouros, by Anonymous (Greece) c. 500 BC

​First Step
 
There are three types of meaning in the world:
what we can know, what we could think to know,
and what we cannot fathom. This is how
a painted eland, brown and white, might loom
out of the flood of history to fill
a cave wall, or a drinking cup be stored
beneath the glass. You can’t expect to trace
a universal pattern here. A stem
or leaf or branch will form and dissipate,
their tilt is not for meaning. But each word
we fashion and each structure we create
speaks in our language. I’ve been pondering
the way this kouros steps up into art 
from the brute life of matter. At his sides, 
 
his two clenched fists. The man whose grave he graced,
the man who spoke and walked beneath the stars,
has done with talking, and the kouros too 
says not a word. And yet, a web of sense 
descends around him. Every inch a king,
says Lear, and every inch of marble here 
maps out the artist’s language. It is not
entirely mine – this kouros is unknown 
to my brain, he’s too far – yet he provides
a freedom, an intent that summon up
their echo in my soul. Cut from the stone
into what we might call reality,
in this now-silent room the kouros strides:
a stride forever taken, a first step.

John Claiborne Isbell
​
Since 2016, various MSS of John’s have placed as finalist or semifinalist for The Washington Prize (three times), The Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes (twice), the Elixir Press 19th Annual Poetry Award, The Gival Press Poetry Award, the 2020 Able Muse Book Award (twice) and the 2020 Richard Snyder Publication Prize. John published his first book of poetry, Allegro, in 2018, and has published in Poetry Durham, threecandles.org, the Jewish Post & Opinion, and The Ekphrastic Review. He has published books with Oxford and with Cambridge University Press and appeared in Who’s Who in the World. He also once represented France in the European Ultimate Frisbee Championships. He retired this summer from The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, where he taught French and German and coached men’s and women’s ultimate. His wife continues to teach languages there.