{"id":25412,"date":"2014-04-06T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=25412"},"modified":"2023-11-16T16:40:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T22:40:22","slug":"sunday-blog-read-david-hawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/sunday-blog-read-david-hawkins\/","title":{"rendered":"READ LOCAL First: David Hawkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DCH<\/a>READ LOCAL First<\/strong>\u00a0is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah\u2019s literary writers.<\/p>\n

Today, 15 Bytes features\u00a0David\u00a0Hawkins<\/strong>\u00a0who provides\u00a0three selections\u00a0from\u00a0his award-winning manuscript \u00a0t<\/em>he book of the missing. “dark adaptations”\u00a0<\/i>is\u00a0one of two long poems in\u00a0the collection and the featured\u00a0sections below were\u00a0originally published in the Seattle Review<\/em>.\u00a0The other long poem in the collection was written after Leonardo’s famous anatomy “The Foetus in Utero,” the focus of\u00a0Hawkins’\u00a0reading this past Wednesday at City Arts at the Salt Lake City Library downtown. The two long poems are meant to work together, he explains.\u00a0 The “adaptations” are, in part, variations on themes raised in the Leonardo poem.<\/p>\n

Sunday Blog Read<\/strong> continues to collect a distinguished group of established and emerging Utah writers for your review and enjoyment. Past writers have included former and current Utah Poets Laureate Kate Coles and Lance Larsen, 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, short fiction writer Calvin Haul, poet Joel Long, fiction writer Lynn Kilpatrick, and, last month,\u00a0narrative nonfiction writer Phyllis Barber.<\/p>\n

So curl up with your favorite cup of joe and enjoy the work of David Hawkins!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

dark adaptations<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

ONCE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 plucked from sleep\u00a0\u00a0 lids fringed in the black<\/p>\n

floss of dreams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you woke half in the placid<\/p>\n

dark of this world \u00a0\u00a0& half the other<\/p>\n

Into endless night\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 no stars\u00a0\u00a0 no moon<\/p>\n

only the faint rhythmic snuffling of your<\/p>\n

love in bed beside you\u00a0 told you this<\/p>\n

was your own room\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And the eye that called up<\/p>\n

visions \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0even in emptiness where you<\/p>\n

couldn\u2019t see\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 beheld in the pitch<\/p>\n

black numbers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 their cloaks clumped with leaves<\/p>\n

mouths smutched with blackcake & ash\u00a0 as if words<\/p>\n

burned on the cold altars of their tongues<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All night you watched this grave procession<\/p>\n

& when one finally spoke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 one wretched<\/p>\n

syllable hung in the air like smoke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

the poor soul complained\u00a0\u00a0 Cold<\/i>\u00a0 it repeated<\/p>\n

but would say no more\u00a0\u00a0 then lurched off<\/p>\n

bones rattling like wood claves beneath<\/p>\n

its tunic \u00a0Was that it\u00a0 you wondered<\/p>\n

was that all that lie in store\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 & when you<\/p>\n

woke in your bed from the half-dream\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 there was<\/p>\n

this strange animal-smell in the sheets<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well what could you do \u00a0 The ancient night grows<\/p>\n

more ill-starred & fettled with coal pickings<\/p>\n

& draws out each twilight as air turns cold<\/p>\n

the renewal of our sooner passing<\/p>\n

So without even a weak light for warmth<\/p>\n

in this small dark corner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you chose to<\/p>\n

burble the black curses of the old wound<\/p>\n

to the deep & slumbrous cosmos<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

THROUGH smoke clotted air\u00a0\u00a0 in a leaf-matted<\/p>\n

coat damp with rain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the Orphan keeps watch<\/p>\n

Eyes town\u2014but won\u2019t return\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 lives in woods<\/p>\n

& hills like a squatter\u00a0\u00a0 He hauls a clutch<\/p>\n

of twigs for the fire\u00a0\u00a0 whispers to beasts \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0fur<\/p>\n

glistening with grease water\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He explains<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

all the town\u2019s exactly as he left it<\/p>\n

the enfeebled light of the foundry<\/p>\n

& coal-pit pipefire\u2019s flickering votive<\/p>\n

& above all\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the disinterested star-<\/p>\n

drunk dark\u00a0\u00a0 that marks the visible boundary<\/p>\n

The animals nod\u00a0\u00a0 bray softly at<\/p>\n

the moon\u00a0 the little light it gives\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 so crude<\/p>\n

only their single note\u00a0\u00a0 now roughly<\/p>\n

doffing its small coat\u00a0\u00a0 can match it<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Come back\u00a0 we beg \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0starlights are only<\/p>\n

little wishes for presence\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 & the egg<\/p>\n

alone in its nest sends up a wistful<\/p>\n

persistent call \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then we add\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Listen<\/i><\/p>\n

you can hear the crow that lives in the walls<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

RECKLESSLY you chased the dream into light<\/p>\n

Now the lawn must be mown\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 flowers tended<\/p>\n

& you\u2019ve found so many entanglements<\/p>\n

nothing can be gathered in any lone<\/p>\n

vessel\u00a0\u00a0 Is it any wonder you can’t<\/p>\n

remember how simple it once was\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 when<\/p>\n

a suckling pulse & small scaffold of bone<\/p>\n

braced the inaugural flesh\u00a0 & heart-root<\/p>\n

trailed into dark\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When occult notaries<\/p>\n

in every secret port refused<\/p>\n

to disembark\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they wrote by the rocking<\/p>\n

rushlight of their black naval desks<\/p>\n

The notebooks they\u2019ve left behind describe<\/p>\n

an unnamed city\u00a0\u00a0 slowly stripped of light<\/p>\n

the gray slabs of its streets & boroughs pried<\/p>\n

up & dumped with slag \u00a0 & in a most<\/p>\n

inscrutable grammar \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the splendid tower<\/p>\n

reduced to scrap \u00a0\u00a0 burned in the black square<\/p>\n

where day or night\u00a0 the sculptor\u2019s hammer<\/p>\n

rung feverishly against the stone<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If only you could get it back\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but here<\/p>\n

the outer real estate’s grown wild with age<\/p>\n

& night teems with twists of stars<\/p>\n

& we have still so much to do before<\/p>\n

its black haul swells up & overtakes us<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014, David Hawkins. As originally appeared in The Seattle Review<\/i>. Reprinted with permission of the author.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

David Hawkins is the author of the non-fiction chapbook, <\/em>Lorraine Nelson: A Biography in Post-it\u00ae Notes, winner of the Cupboard\u2019s Literary Pamphlet competition, selected by Michael Martone (2011) and the poetry collection, <\/em>the book of the missing, winner of a Utah Arts Council award for poetry and a finalist for the Poetry Foundation\u2019s Emily Dickinson prize. His poetry has appeared in a number of journals and periodicals, including<\/em>\u00a0At Length Magazine<\/a>, <\/em>Barrow Street,\u00a0<\/em>Bat City Review,\u00a0<\/em>Chelsea, <\/em>DIAGRAM, <\/em>The Pedestal, SPORK<\/a>, and <\/em>The Seattle Review, among others. An Assistant Professor\/Lecturer at the\u00a0University of Utah where he was the Editor-in-Chief of <\/em>Quarterly West\u00a0 from \u201801-\u201905, David lives in\u00a0Salt Lake City\u00a0with his wife and their two boys.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

READ LOCAL First\u00a0is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah\u2019s literary writers. Today, 15 Bytes features\u00a0David\u00a0Hawkins\u00a0who provides\u00a0three selections\u00a0from\u00a0his award-winning manuscript \u00a0the book of the missing. “dark adaptations”\u00a0is\u00a0one of two long poems in\u00a0the collection and the featured\u00a0sections below were\u00a0originally published in the Seattle Review.\u00a0The other long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":25415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[1913,1912],"class_list":["post-25412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first","tag-dark-adaptations","tag-david-hawkins"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/DCH-photo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 12:54:57","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\/25412","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=25412"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71655,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25412\/revisions\/71655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}