A visual piece by Regina Marie in collaboration with D Hake Brinckerhoff
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(O responds to several male professors who implore O to calm down
& convert to a more modern & sensible ‘oh’)
By Regina Marie
Solo I sing, O, you are immaculate vowelness °° resurgent, self-englobing wowness °° noooo beginning & noooo end, continuous aria glass breaking Oooooooo, make me vow-ciferous! °° Open & be ovations! // but tweed and musk, ‘e says, stop! you ‘eretic, as if O alone were proper poetry and not ludicrous 19 century // O my god, I am artly sorry, I croon, but I oscillate in roundness of breasts buttocks belly speaking oceans outrageous! // ‘e says, you’re arousal’s a ruse, you too too full ‘omo erotical // I say, Poor old man, your clanging organ don’t sass my lips °° I am body & blood of spice °° I am O sweet communion of life // ‘e says, you want to be publis’d, disappear O // / I say, O boy, I obsolete your crippled canon °° I ooooooze ordnances of ovulation °° clandestine mucification °° mocktail secretions of cumulus expansion °° egg occasions pronouncing embryo baubles °° ovary blisters & bops! // ‘e says, now you’re just being gratuitous, ‘eed me and kowtow to my semiotics // O stigma of bursting blister & blood, I incant, depart from old genesis °° fusty musk, I’ve outsourced your jizz °° I steed instead auto-queery evolution! buff boi trans-elocution!°° tongue sow self-seminal pink! // and ‘e, ‘e cries, you ‘arlot! you orifice! you orangutan! // But I outrage, O Praise! My glory-us! Ad infinovum, circumovulating, cosmogonic, obstreperous, octo-volvus!
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Regina Marie started writing with great urgency after a long career designing software. Her poem “Fall” was published as finalist in the Frontier Poetry Open. Her work has also appeared in Poet Lore, CALYX, Briarcliff Review, Permafrost, Puerto del Sol and Crosswinds. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She works with Citizens Climate Lobby in Salt Lake City, Utah.
D Hake Brinckerhoff: “I paint quickly, intuitively, and work much of the surface at the same time. The tension of composition as well as the emotional and physical heft of a painting are important to me. I convey emotion through abstract expression using line and gesture drawing as my foundation and paint, color, shapes, and movement to unify the piece. Most of my work has been figurative, with particular attention to where in the body the figure holds its weight— both literally and metaphorically. My figures often explore the ways that people make themselves vulnerable, become wounded and scarred, and yet, almost heroically, maintain resiliency. I’m intrigued by the role I play in connecting the story of the image and the story of the viewer. Most recently, I find myself motivated to create work that can be both beautiful and challenging or uncomfortable, tackling social and cultural issues and that we typically remain silent about.” https://www.dhakeart.com/
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