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Jason Crane Posts

POEM: I Just Rewatched The Episode In Which Kanan Jarrus Dies

I Just Rewatched The Episode In Which Kanan Jarrus Dies

The first time I watched it was with you.
He dies in a big explosion at a fuel depot.
I didn’t realize at the time it was a metaphor.
Other than my parents I think you’ve caused
the most damage. Well, maybe other than my parents
and me, of course. Two and a half years later,
I’m waiting for the flames to die down.

/ / /

26 March 2023
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: A Room Of One’s Own

A Room Of One’s Own

In the cartoon,
the boy wakes up
in his berth
on a spaceship
surrounded by friends.
The image
is one of distress
in the context
of the story
but it looks like
heaven to me.

/ / /

25 March 2023
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: Safety

Safety

Surfacing from sleep,
I felt your arms around me.
For the first time in days,
my whole body relaxed.

I awoke, alone,
on a camp cot in a minivan.

/ / /

22 March 2023
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: 23

23

This is a poem
inspired by an album
inspired by twenty-three paintings.

This is a stanza in a poem
inspired by an album
inspired by twenty-three paintings.

This
is a word in a stanza in a poem
inspired by an album
inspired by twenty-three paintings.

T—
his is a letter in a word
in a stanza in a poem
inspired by an album
inspired by twenty-three paintings.


is the absence of a word
in a stanza in a poem
inspired by an album
inspired by twenty-three paintings.

*

up in the sky
we make the stars
make pictures

/ / /

14 March 2023
State College PA

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POEM: “We got to the top but we didn’t see anything.”

“We got to the top but we didn’t see anything.”

It feels like a put-on.
Is it a put-on?
Excited?
Ambivalent.
An early 20th century coinage.
Following the pattern of
“equivalent.”
It’s a choice like any other.
The next step.
That’s all.
Sometimes you spend too long
climbing a hill and when you
reach the summit
the whole damn thing
is covered in clouds.
No views at all.
“Valency counts all arguments,
including the subject.”
That’s what I mean.
Take it all into consideration.
Stop making plans
for what follows.
What follows is too far away.

/ / /

13 March 2023
State College PA

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POEM: Progress

Progress

I used to be sad
at night
but now I’m sad
in the morning.

/ / /

10 March 2023
State College PA

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Virgo full moon tarot reading

(Thanks to instagram.com/seedsofshakti for the spread.)
  1. What medicine does the Virgo full moon offer? (Strength, reversed) Despite some recent good news, I am definitely struggling in light of the major hurdles that still need to be overcome before my life is anything approaching stable. Reversed, this card carries a message of inner strength, which I definitely need. And which I also have. That’s important to remember.
  2. What area in my life needs more structure and organization? (Three of Pentacles, reversed) Reversed, this card refers to being out of alignment and to working alone. I’m going to take it as a reminder to focus on staying in touch with my inner circle. That’s especially important as I’m about to move to a brand new place and start a new job with people I don’t know.
  3. What lifestyle changes would my body, heart and mind benefit from? (The Hierophant) I stepped away from my spiritual practice last year and I haven’t gone back. On its face this card would seem to suggest a reexamination of that decision, but I still feel it was the right move for now. However, I might need to find another way to focus on my interior spiritual life. Like finally starting morning pages, perhaps.
  4. What project that has been on the back burner forever needs to be revisited and completed? (Judgement) This card can be about new beginnings and about the ending of one phase and the beginning of another. I can’t really say that’s been on the back burner, or that it will ever be completed, but I certainly need to be working on building community in my new surroundings.
  5. Message from the ancestors. (The Hermit, reversed) Reversed, this card speaks to isolation and loneliness and withdrawal. I would say that’s the theme of this entire reading: Leaning on the people I already have, and looking for a new community in Charlottesville.
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POEM: Regular Bird

Regular Bird

I saw a Regular Bird today.
It was in a bush outside the grocery store.
It was doing Regular Bird things.
A bit of hopping. A flit. The odd chirp.
I took a photo but it just looks like
a Regular Bird, which makes sense I guess.
Then when I got home I noticed
my entire neighborhood had vanished.

/ / /

2 March 2023
State College PA

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POEM: Night Poem

Night Poem

There’s a gentle scraping against the wall.
A gentle scraping.

There’s a warmth that spreads
through the veins,
to the skin,
to the feet and then
to the earth below.

To the earth where
it is received like a kiss,
a promise, a question.

There’s a sound on the air
like water, like blood, like

silvery laughter breaking
against a hill,
and the soft rush of breathing
against the hollow of his neck.

/ / /

28 February 2023
State College PA

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POEM: Edges

Edges

I am standing on many edges.

I am balancing on the tips of my toes.

I am avoiding certain phrases.

I am hinting at what everyone knows.

I am holding a jewel in my warm hands.

I am singing softly under my breath.

I am hoping (if “hoping” is the word I want).

I am listening so intently and yet —

This isn’t my house. I don’t know the noises.

I mistook the furnace for rain.

I am gathering up the courage to say it.

I am standing on edges again.

/ / /

24 February 2023
Farmington NY

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POEM: Jean-Jacques And The Finch

Jean-Jacques And The Finch

He walks five miles through suburbs and parking lots,
sending photos of English ivy back to its home ground.

He stops to look at birds because that’s what she’d do,
and that’s what he’d do, too, which is why he’s telling her.

The pods of the catalpa dangle like alien fingers
as he stoops below them to angle the camera just so.

On other nights she’s sent ghostly images of blackened forests;
captured the orange glow above rows of identical roofs.

He’s listening to Allen Ginsberg, she’s reading Rousseau.
He wishes he’d brought some water, but he hadn’t planned

to take this walk; continued in response to her delight at the photos.
A turkey vulture glides above his head. He raises one hand

to shield his eyes, captures the image with his thumb.
Rousseau to Voltaire: “I hate you … But I hate you as a man

better fitted to love you, had you so willed.”
There’s a purple finch on the wire under the water tower,

balanced in that way birds can and humans aspire to.
He imagines the feeling of falling, or feels it, truly –

his chest tightening at the thought.
When he looks again the finch is gone.

/ / /

20 February 2023
State College PA

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