{"id":24239,"date":"2013-12-01T09:53:37","date_gmt":"2013-12-01T15:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=24239"},"modified":"2023-11-20T15:32:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T21:32:20","slug":"sunday-blog-read-lance-larsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/sunday-blog-read-lance-larsen\/","title":{"rendered":"READ LOCAL First: Lance Larsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lancelarsen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

READ LOCAL First<\/strong> is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah\u2019s literary writers.<\/p>\n

Today, 15 Bytes features Utah Poet Laureate Lance Larsen<\/strong>\u00a0who provides three poems below.<\/p>\n

Sunday Blog Read continues to collect a distinguished group of established and emerging Utah writers for your review and enjoyment. Past writers have included former Utah Poet Laureate Kate Coles, poet Michael McLane, short story writer Darrell Spencer, fiction writer Larry Menlove, memoirist Christopher Bigelow, poet Shanan Ballam, speculative fiction writer Steve Proskauer, fiction writer April Wilder and short fiction writer Calvin Haul.<\/p>\n

So curl up with your favorite cup of joe and\u2026enjoy!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Late Measures in Blood<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to touch Macbeth,\u201d my daughter said.\u00a0 I shushed her, but the bloody king of Scotland<\/p>\n

glanced down with guillotine eyes.\u00a0 We were groundlings at the Globe\u2014worth five pounds each,<\/p>\n

worth wind and cold and three hours of sore feet.\u00a0 Macbeth strode off to keep tragedy brisk,<\/p>\n

entertainment cathartic.\u00a0 An afternoon worth one Weird Sister scratching her thigh and London<\/p>\n

darkening into sackcloth.\u00a0 Macbeth returned, growled out a few lines, then edged his shoe<\/p>\n

towards my daughter.\u00a0 Edged it closer.\u00a0 Worth a pair of pigeons settling on the thatched roof and<\/p>\n

unfurling a tapestry of ragged coos.\u00a0\u00a0 As if on cue, my daughter touched Macbeth\u2019s ankle, and<\/p>\n

Macbeth lifted his head to the watchful heavens.\u00a0 The world slowed.\u00a0 Time, and again time.<\/p>\n

Time for the sky to open up and fall all over us, time to be both wet and chosen, time for my<\/p>\n

daughter to rub her palms together\u2014till fame coated both hands.\u00a0 And Macbeth, that kind bloody<\/p>\n

tyrant, born of no woman, dashed off to slaughter Macduff.<\/p>\n

(Originally appeared in Connotation Press<\/i>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pantoum for Trevin, Who Loves to Vacuum<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nineteen going on six, cocooned without words, he points to machines.\u00a0 Who can save us from<\/p>\n

dust?\u00a0 A static of birds, the sky chirring yes.\u00a0 He points to machines and waits till you name each<\/p>\n

noise\u2014a static of birds, the sky chirring yes.\u00a0 He kisses the vacuum and waits till you name each<\/p>\n

noise, hello bright world, a ritual he craves.\u00a0 He kisses the vacuum, and the thrumming mouth<\/p>\n

begins to graze.\u00a0 Hello bright world. A ritual he craves: leaving swoopy trails in shag.\u00a0 Call this a<\/p>\n

test. And the thrumming mouth begins to graze, leaving swoopy trails in shag, the dirt we take<\/p>\n

up, the clean left behind.\u00a0 Call this a test: what stations we create, the dirt we take up, the clean<\/p>\n

left behind. Another day, another vacuum.\u00a0 What stations we create, fermatas of longing,<\/p>\n

particles of God.\u00a0 Another day, another vacuum: dark matter we pass through, fermatas of<\/p>\n

longing, particles of God.\u00a0 Just another boy gurgling like a storm\u2014dark matter we pass through.<\/p>\n

Who can save us from dust?\u00a0 Just another boy gurgling like a storm, nineteen going on six,<\/p>\n

cocooned without words.<\/p>\n

(Originally appeared in Pool: A Journal of Poetry <\/i>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aphorisms for a Lonely Planet<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Gezzundheit!\u2014as close as I\u2019ve come to Nietzsche and Heidegger in months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

All ants on earth outweigh all humans\u2014some truths climb your leg for weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Why do I assume star gazer lilies are happier than dandelions?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Doves\u2014mourning or morning? \u00a0Both names sound wrongly right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

During delivery, we re-name the vagina birth canal<\/i>: to help the men of this world\u00a0think exit<\/i> rather than entrance.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Dirt doesn\u2019t mind that we step on it, just as stars do not pine for our promises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

In every dialect of bee, drone<\/i> is a compliment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Historians: failed philosophers.\u00a0 Philosophers: failed poets.\u00a0 Poets: failed historians.\u00a0 Etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

What holds the kite up, the wind or a ball of twine?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

Foolish reader, still trying to use this poem as a mirror?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

11<\/p>\n

Fifteen-year-old son to his father: \u201cAren\u2019t we all heroine addicts to some degree?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

Often we fill the teapot not to slake our thirst but to be summoned by singing.<\/p>\n

(Originally appeared in Southern Review<\/i>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lance Larsen, poet laureate of Utah, has published four poetry collections, most recently Genius Loci <\/i>(Tampa 2013).\u00a0 His poetry and essays have appeared in Southern Review, Poetry, Brevity, Orion, Black Warrior Review, New York Review of Books, TLS, Poetry Daily, Best American Poetry 2009, <\/i>and elsewhere.\u00a0 He has received a number of awards, including a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.\u00a0 He is currently at work on a prose memoir about growing up in Idaho.\u00a0 A professor of English at BYU, he recently directed a study abroad program in Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

READ LOCAL First is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah\u2019s literary writers. Today, 15 Bytes features Utah Poet Laureate Lance Larsen\u00a0who provides three poems below. Sunday Blog Read continues to collect a distinguished group of established and emerging Utah writers for your review and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":21398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[1776,880,1775],"class_list":["post-24239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first","tag-genius-loci","tag-lance-larsen","tag-poet-laureate-of-utah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/lancelarsen.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 02:56:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24239"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72034,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24239\/revisions\/72034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}