INTERIOR LIFE

Filled with moments of intense transformation, these poems explore that part of life which exists between words, exposing a lush and sometimes contradictory world.

M O N K E Y P U Z Z L E P R E S S . C O M

POETRY / $5.00

"As Katharyn Grant knows, and demonstrates so deli-cately in these poems, the interior life is only accessible through appearances, which are treacherous. But most treacherous of all is the fact that sometimes things are what they seem: "She is buried behind the Conoco sta-tion / small life lingers so quiet.” This is a small book full of large gestures, both visual and verbal—and it seems appropriate that it uses color so frighteningly: "Swim-ming in mid air / streaks of purple in cyclone weather.”

Bin Ramke, author of Theory of Mind: New and Selected Poems

"Vivid language explodes images that will stay with you, accompanied by the writer’s own gorgeous photo-graphs and paintings.”

Kona Morris, Co-Founder and Editor of Fast Forward Press

Katharyn Grant

Monkey Puzzle PressBoulder, Colorado

INTERIOR LIFE

Katharyn Grant

Copyright © 2011 by Katharyn Grant

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or re- produced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief excerpts.

Cover ArtSelf Portrait of Author, reflected in pitcher

Monkey Puzzle PressPO Box 20804

Boulder, CO 80308monkeypuzzlepress .com

Photos and ArtworkKatharyn Grant

"The Understudy” reprinted from Fast Forward: The Mix Tape, published by Fast Forward Press (2010) and copyright (2010) Katharyn Grant.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Interior Life 1

Euphoric Dissolution 2

Dry and White 4

Ghosts 5

The Understudy 6

Fireworks 8

Manifestations 9

Stone 10

Love I & Love II 11

Easter 12

For the First Time You Were Alone 14

Thieves 16

Shadow Lake 19

Epiphany, a Constellation 22

Bedtime I 24

Bedtime II & Bedime III 25

Eulogy I & Eulogy II 26

At the Water’s Edge 28

About the Author

Recall blueprints set down in the cells fathermothergrandmothera kaleidoscope of ghosts

And memories are nursery rhymesreplacednote by notewith delicate replicasthat reinvent us

Colored light shattersprojected ontothe screen of deliberate gazingbut beyond the cherry fenceand the believable skylookthings contain theirsecret opposite

Pulling up to a wide intersectionvertigo

Your car coasts across dark pavementdrenched with rain-wet reflection

A red stoplight shinesforming thin streamsred in street water A single blaring siren cuts through soundless darkness

1

INTERIOR LIFE

INTERIOR LIFE

2

Make me smallI beggedsmall enough to fitinto the mouth of my motherthat huge fishwho protects her youngby eating them

Form only in resonancemoving tenderly throughthose ethereal bodiesof light and sound

As yielding as soilas airas water, as waterwhat I will call myself when I have peeled away birthdayslike bark

I will no more gaze longinglyat migrations of birds

I will no longer reach towardsthe silent flight in all things

Katharyn Grant

EUPHORIC DISSOLUTION

INTERIOR LIFE

3

I carrybonesin a bucket collarcheeka childa fragment

I collect them inthe dry backyard grasscover them with honeyand feed them to the chickens

I wear a cowboy hatand sweep dried leaves behind me

Disguisestrailer homesand wire fencesbloomin unreal evening

But those bones forforecastingI set aside in the sunand in the rainand lightand whistle them clean

Katharyn Grant

DRY AND WHITE

4

CircumstanceLandscapeA body of waterThe dead walk among usLiving on saltInhabiting the eyes

INTERIOR LIFE

GHOSTS

5

Freedom is an owl that moves as quickly and as quietly as death, seeing it’s prey in darkness, swooping down with razor sharp pre-cision.

I dreamt my bones were hollow as the bones of finches, mead-owlarks, talon-wielding hawks.

I took flight, as in the germination of a thought, separate, indi-visible and whole as the nucleus of an atom.

With each new thought I am multiplying exponentially, selves destined now to wander, air born, noiseless, but for the sound of wings beating against air. Perhaps this is what is meant by karma.

Though bloodless, aware, I harness the wind with clean delibera-tion.

Katharyn Grant

AT THE WATER’S EDGE

28

INTERIOR LIFE

29

Katharyn Grant is currently directing and starring in her first feature length film The Mighty King of Love, based out of Denver, Colorado. Her short films have appeared on IFC (Independent Film Channel) and various film festivals. She’s performed internationally with Armed Forces Entertainment. Her written work has appeared in The Orange Coast Review, Foothills Magazine, Fast Forward Volume II, Fast Forward: The Mix Tape, and Monkey Puzzle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

other books fromMonkey Puzzle Press

With tooth and nail, Meg Tuite scrapes not under the skin, but under the bone to find the marrow of meaning and purpose in the lives of her characters. Her unique voice and style redefine what it means to be a woman, and to be a writer.

Fiction / $5.00Chapbook: 26 pagesPublished: January 2012ISBN-10: 0-9826646-9-9

The Clara Ann Burns Story is an expression of child abuse and neglect witnessed through a patchwork of short prose reflections, poems, one minute plays, scholarly studies, and photographs.

Fiction / $15.00Paperback: 105 pagesPublished: November 2011ISBN-10: 0-9826646-7-2

Natalie’s search is an intrepid journey through her own sexuality. With inquisitive perception and agile use of perspective, Searching for Suzi is an investigation into the tragic shadows of a forgotten past.

Fiction / $11.95Paperback: 96 pagesPublished: November 2009ISBN-10: 0-9801650-6-7

m o n k e y p u z z l e p r e s s . c o m

INTERIOR LIFE

Filled with moments of intense transformation, these poems explore that part of life which exists between words, exposing a lush and sometimes contradictory world.

M O N K E Y P U Z Z L E P R E S S . C O M

POETRY / $5.00

“As Katharyn Grant knows, and demonstrates so delicately in these poems, the interior life is only accessible through appear-ances, which are treacherous. But most treacherous of all is the fact that sometimes things are what they seem: ‘She is buried behind the Conoco station / small life lingers so quiet.’ This is a small book full of large gestures, both visual and verbal—and it seems appropriate that it uses color so frighteningly: ‘Swim-ming in mid air / streaks of purple in cyclone weather.’”

Bin Ramke, author of Theory of Mind: New and Selected Poems

“Vivid language explodes images that will stay with you, ac-companied by the writer’s own gorgeous photographs and paintings.”

Kona Morris, Co-Founder and Editor of Fast Forward Press

Katharyn Grant

“Very striking imagery and rich language.” Orange Coast Review