{"id":3127,"date":"2017-04-05T01:53:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T01:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=3127"},"modified":"2017-07-11T21:13:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T21:13:29","slug":"khor-virap-alex-vartan-gubbins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/khor-virap-alex-vartan-gubbins\/","title":{"rendered":"Khor Virap by Alex Vartan Gubbins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Khor Virap<\/h2>\n

by Alex Vartan Gubbins<\/p>\n

The night fog throws
\na black cotton over the trees
\nas a voice behind the silence
\ndances off marble walls
\nfrom a hole, that tongue
\nfrom the earth\u2019s torque
\nthirsty for threading moon
\nover the river\u2019s hearty amble,
\ntenuous, stagnating ebullition
\nbetween blues wandering
\nthe glows, where feral crust
\nlines itself with the eastern rush
\nin humble recession in the basin.
\nThe moon tide of up & in & back
\nout to stretch the banks only to lay
\na tarp of after-dusk over the valley.
\nIf you stand & feel the power of
\nthe current\u2019s struggle against
\nyour shins, removing calm instinct
\nto make you reconsider
\nthe honor of shadow, then darkness
\nwill tattoo itself into your heart.
\nof all you can see, & cannot.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

[So be it, so be the pale
\napproach of reflection off the glass
\nin the dead pools. you\u2019ll have enough
\nwhen the dying lamb\u2019s pitch
\nmakes you un-have what you thought of
\nwhen dreaming of christened wires
\nthat quiet as you pass through.
\nyou pry open metal in darkness,
\ntestimony of humbling your crawl
\nso your palms understand
\nevery stone across the river lowland.
\nwhat happened and what could still
\nas you silent-bottle what you
\nwitnessed to get here, the crawling
\nacross the fields, the touch
\nof cold lips & eyes, some
\nare open.]
\n###<\/p>\n

Alex Vartan Gubbins was born in Chicago. He has a BA in African Languages and Literature from UW Wisconsin and an MFA from Northern Michigan University. He was the recipient of the 2014 Witter Bynner Translation Grant and a finalist in the North American Review’s<\/em> 2015 James Hearst Poetry Prize. He\u2019s recently been published in By & By Poetry, Bird\u2019s Thumb<\/em>, and Tishman Review<\/em>. He currently lives in Yerevan, Armenia, where he works as a teacher. Avgubbins.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Vartan Gubbins was born in Chicago. He has a BA in African Languages and Literature from UW Wisconsin and an MFA from Northern Michigan University. He was the recipient of the 2014 Witter Bynner Translation Grant and a finalist in the North American Review’s 2015 James<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,408],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-moon-poem","category-nature-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t