Decorated with ideographs

Decorated with ideographs they flooded the ground scarlet, a matchbox house allowed to vanish.

This post is part of my book-long erasure poetry and collage project on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book.

It rises; it dies

It rises, it doesn’t rise, it dies; a wilderness of growth entwined in battle or in love.

This post is part of my book-long erasure poetry and collage project on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book.

Whitened beauty

Here terrible stumps of whitened beauty splintered and cracked, until she lay down and looked up through the network of gray lichen and branches and slept a while.

This post is part of my book-long erasure poetry and collage project on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book.

Balance

It tried to grow directly into the teeth of every storm, crouched and twisted, the balance between survival and extinction so delicate.

This post is part of my book-long erasure poetry and collage project on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book.

Happy New Year

They said the door is always open on to the horizon.

This post is part of my book-long erasure poetry and collage project on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book.

Rowan tree

One time I woke up and remembered the cold underground room, trunks and chests and boxes with gaping lids filled with coal-black shadow, a rowan tree growing through the ceiling.