Carleen Tibbetts’ poem “all wonders are small” (an excerpt from Gold and Harm) has been paired with a spiraling oceanic garment from Iris van Herpen's 2020 "Sensory Seas" show. Inspired by medusoids, Van Herpen's multi-layered garment appears to move, float, and reach into the wearer's body endlessly. Like a jellyfish, Tibbetts' poem of ambiguous blue appears small at first glance, but its glass-organza aquarelles are vast. With nods to Stein ("a room which is a robe") and Blake ("a non-sequitur is a song of experience"), Tibbetts' whirling poem transforms reader into wearer. Or perhaps we're deep inside Hilda Doolittle's "over-mind" — where there is no body. Only sea-plant. Jellyfish. Anenome. Super-feelers and super feelings. The beastly and the divine.
— Paul Cunningham, Editor
all wonders are small
daily life draws us into an endless dialogue/this time of ambiguous blue/time has no respect for
things done without it/a twinkling beast/a fine recording with no hisses/a room which is a
robe/there are many predatory weathers/a non-sequitur is a song of experience
Carleen Tibbetts is the author of several chapbooks and books, most recently DATACLYSM.jpg (White Stag), and dossier for the postverbal (Carrion Bloom). Her work has appeared in many print and online journals including jubilat, Sink, The Offending Adam, Deluge, Dreginald, Notre Dame Review, The Pinch, mercury firs, Cult Mag, and others.
