Steven Dondlinger

April 25, 2015

“Location’s Everything” by Steven DondlingerPosted by

Ekphrasis Challenge #3: Editor’s Choice

 

Untitled by James Bernal

__________

Steven Dondlinger

LOCATION’S EVERYTHING

Call me a pessimist
but one flower over each eye
won’t shield ours souls from heaven.

It’s just wishful thinking
the prayers and blessings
the dirt on empty coffins.

Sure, we bought our plots
when the price was good
and neighbors weren’t all that bad.

They said we’d be better off
dead
and we agreed.

—Ekphrasis Challenge #3
Editor’s Choice Winner

[download audio]

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Comment from the editor, Timothy Green, on his selection: “There are many ways ekphrastic poems can work—some poems leap imaginatively into new scenes, others linger on certain details or make a viewer see the source image in new ways. Steven Dondlinger chose probably the most difficult option: Here he explains, expands, and illuminates the very feeling I get looking at the photograph. It’s a happy, lonely, pleasant sadness, that I can’t really describe—this poem is the description.”

Note: This poem has been published exclusively online as part of our quarterly Ekphrasis Challenge, in which we ask poets to respond to an image provided by our current issue’s cover artist. This spring, the image was a photograph by Gail Goepfert. We received 295 entries, and the artist and Rattle‘s editor each chose their favorite. Gail’s choice was posted last Saturday. For more information on the Ekphrasis Challenge visit its page. See other poets’ responses or post your own by joining our Facebook group.

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March 12, 2015

“Do Not Walk Outside This Area” by Steven DondlingerPosted by

Steven Dondlinger

DO NOT WALK OUTSIDE THIS AREA

This flight is a test of both
faith in God and his absence.

The nun in 17D is my human shield.
He wouldn’t dare take us both out.

Would he?

If God has taught us anything
it’s that his aim is poor.

Why else choose storms and sulfur
over precision-guided missiles?

It’s either vanity or a reminder
to keep good company.

Even on the wing reads his warning:
“Do Not Walk Outside This Area.”

Which must be meant for angels
or demons or molecules of gas

holding hands and pushing back
against a growing wind

or maybe nothing.

—from Rattle #46, Winter 2014

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Steven Dondlinger: “At the end of college, feeling directionless during a particularly drawn out Minnesota winter, I randomly came across a book by Dobby Gibson. I opened up to the first page and read his poem ‘Polar.’ I stood reading the poem over and over for what seemed liked hours and I have had the poem memorized ever since. That was nearly ten years ago and the words still comfort me. ‘Polar’ made me want to have that same ability to comfort and captivate a complete stranger. It seemed like some sort of superpower. That’s why I write poems.”

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