Jesse Lee Kercheval

one poem

The poem

crosses the frontier between being to being a place. Becomes the place we exist. The poem is the architect. The house is built of snow. Ghosts will storm the architecture, beat their drums until all sound is stopped. The ghosts will be the ones who stop it. Beyond the cliff, the ghost boat sails across the bay. Or is it the house that sails? No matter. Oil slicks burning on the water. A lantern lit in every hall. Once we crossed that border from warm to wet, admit it: we were never going back.

Jesse Lee Kercheval is a poet, writer, and translator. Her latest books are the poetry collection America that Island off the coast of France, winner of the Dorset Prize, and the story collection, Underground Women. Her translations include Love Poems by Idea Vilariño. She is also the editor of the anthology América invertida: An Anthology of Emerging Uruguayan Poets.