{"id":37806,"date":"2017-11-05T09:24:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T15:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=37806"},"modified":"2018-09-19T09:25:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T15:25:35","slug":"read-local-sunday-patricia-g-karamesines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/read-local-sunday-patricia-g-karamesines\/","title":{"rendered":"READ LOCAL SUNDAY: Patricia G. Karamesines"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>For today\u2019s installment of\u00a0<\/span>READ LOCAL SUNDAY\u00a0<\/strong>we feature Patricia G. Karamesines, novelist, poet, blogger and nonfiction writer who today offers two poems.<\/p>\n

Originally from Virginia, Karamesines now lives outside of Blanding. Her novel\u00a0The Pictograph Murders<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Signature Books) is a\u00a0unique Utah murder mystery, set at the site of an archaeological dig where rumors of witchcraft and ancient folklore run rampant. She is a self-described\u00a0\u201cgenre-generalist who roams and writes in the Four Corners region of the desert Southwest.\u201d Her essays and posts have taken a deep dive of late into nature writing and the greening of the landscape of human language. Located in San Juan County, she is at the center of the public land-use issues that have embroiled the region, the state, and the nation.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

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

Who Schools the Gods<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

I keep faith with Life, but Life
\nHas debacled and ransacked me.
\nNo thought, no feeling greens, but strife<\/span>
\nDrives blast and blaze and mangy sea<\/span>
\nOver the cliffs into every lee.<\/span>
\nNo high ground safe, no hope home free.<\/span><\/h4>\n

If Life were my lover, I\u2019d kick it out
\nOr slip away the hour it sleeps;
\nA god, embrace instead my doubt;
\nA usurer, burn the books it keeps.
\nBut Living into each shadow creeps,
\nSniffing me out where I crouch to weep.<\/h4>\n

All hours the Vandal Lords appear
\nExtorting goods in coin or kin,
\nEach day that breaks, demand what\u2019s dear,
\nEach night locked tight, break easily in,
\nLeave menthol butts stubbed out in gin,
\nGraffiti spelling, \u201cDIS MAN SIND.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Be not afraid, the angels say,
\nTreasure not this earth, let go.
\nSacristans where we hymn and pray
\nBuff golden rules to fiery glow.
\nAll venerable sages show
\nWhat solemn souls must kneel to know.<\/h4>\n

But who schools gods in being kind?
\nIn letting up and letting be,
\nIn not loosing on an unborn mind
\nHounds of undue pathology
\nOr exacting through heredity
\nA tithe of mortal tragedy?<\/h4>\n

Who stops Childe Life from playing rough?
\nFrom setting mad, unfocused flame?
\nWho gives that savage brat a cuff
\nWhen Life and homie gods make game
\nOf each good act, strike talent lame,
\nThen crow and cavil, \u201cYou\u2019re to blame\u201d?<\/h4>\n

We keep to the coasts of consciousness\u2014
\nAn unbound, unthought, burning sea\u2014
\nPlaying with toys of righteousness,
\nSandcastles of authority,
\nGilded reciprocity,
\nWhile depths await us, mindlessly.<\/h4>\n

\u00a92017 Patricia G. Karamesines<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

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Quarter Moon Tapestry<\/strong><\/h4>\n

September\u2019s quarter moon lies on a swatch
\nof grey felt pressed from fleece of its own
\nshed light and this night\u2019s fabric stillness
\ntrimmed in beadwork of cricket song, inset
\nwith stones of dog bark and the shrills of a horse.<\/h4>\n

The air holds unseasonable warmth, such closeness,
\nThe becalmed trees pose, still lifes on a canvas
\nof flimsy dark, each summercraft leaf
\nlanguid to tree-tip, where meristems switch freely
\nbut tonight stand trapped in windless substance.<\/h4>\n

A harvester starts up, laying hay in rows,
\nengine rumbling, fading, then it turns, and, turning,
\nswings wide a long shaft keener than moonbeam,
\nits glare nicking the house, and, with radiant blade,
\nscything a few wild stands of Cimmerian shade.<\/h4>\n

Finally, a breeze; at first, just bare stirrings;
\nat first, just ribbon flutter of faintest
\nchill striping the skin, \u2018til it knits that fast
\ninto burlap currents that knock the sprig-tops
\nloose of their durance in moonlit resin.<\/h4>\n

In minutes, by degrees, heat flakes away;
\nthe air\u2019s voice finds tongue in vegetable bodies.
\nCricket chant slows to pulsing hum.
\nI walk in, open windows, then in unlit room,
\nWatch curtains weave, drunken, on wind\u2019s brute loom.<\/h4>\n

\u00a92017 Patricia G. Karamesines<\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"Author Patricia G. Karamesines blogs at\u00a0Wilderness Interface Zone<\/a>. She is a writing tutor and adjunct at Utah State University-Eastern Blanding Campus. Currently, she is at work on a nonfiction project,\u00a0\u201cShowdown at Crossfire Creek,\u201d about life in San Juan County.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For today\u2019s installment of\u00a0READ LOCAL SUNDAY\u00a0we feature Patricia G. Karamesines, novelist, poet, blogger and nonfiction writer who today offers two poems. Originally from Virginia, Karamesines now lives outside of Blanding. Her novel\u00a0The Pictograph Murders\u00a0(Signature Books) is a\u00a0unique Utah murder mystery, set at the site of an archaeological dig […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":37807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-bytes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/patricia-karamesines-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 18:21:15","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\/37806","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=37806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37808,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37806\/revisions\/37808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}