Hieronymus Bosch's
Illustrated AlphabetSue William Silverman
Main Street Rag, 2005
ISBN 1-930907-76-1
Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, $7This title was selected for publication as a result of finishing as a runner up in the 2004 MSR Chapbook Contest.
Comments by one of the final judges: "Brilliant, ingenious...tight and fully achieved..." Don Mager
A is for Alchemist
Adios and adieu to the alpha and omega of ancient
altars, angels, apostles, addled Adam accruing
acres of apples, aristocracies, abstractions,
arsenic, and absolutes. Apocalypse: amethyst
amulets abolish armories of arms, attack-airships,
arson, ailments...and anoint animistic antediluvian
atoms awash in alluvium, albumen, aminos.
Applause. Allegorical amoebae appear albino,
androgynous, amorphous, ambiguous. Astronomy
animates an aboriginal architecture of adverbs,
accents, adjectives, argot, ad-libs, apostrophes,
alexandrines, anthems, anecdotes, and antidotes.
Azygous acorns, alabaster agates, alligators,
anemones, ants, albacores, anacondas, alpacas,
afghans, and acrobats acquire arks by alchemy—
for an ascension to the agnostic, astral atmosphere
awash in absinthe ambrosia. Abracadabra!
Alphabets arc to the apex—an apparition
of the almighty aqua atlas awakens.
B is for Babble
Babies burble, beggars bemoan, beatniks
blather, bankrupt barons buzz the boulevards,
berserk bazaar barkers blasphemy, a bevy
of bereaved belles bewail and bruise brute
bachelor bastards black and blue. A bedlam
of bubbling bombast brews because bodies
are besieged by blizzards of buggy bacteria,
bleeding biopsies, bigamist boogiemen
bestowing bibles, bad business...brothels
of balmy babes, bats in belfry, begin
the beguine, and banshees bang bongos
and balalaikas. Bands of buccaneers
in boots and berets bombard, bludgeon,
and blast bastilles with bombs, bayonets,
blunderbusses, and bazookas. Baboons,
boas, butterflies, beetles, birds of paradise,
blesboks, and boars bolt, braying bye-bye
to the barrio, bivouacking and bicycling
up the byzantine Tower of Babel. Behold!
Bacchants bedazzle with bijoux, baubles,
and benedictions...bewitching a burlesqued
Big Bang birthing Buddha and babbling
blessings for beatific Beezelbub.
C is for Conjuring
a cabal of cathodes, chromosomes, cells—a caldroned
chain reaction in cuneiform and calligraphy creating
calendars, calcium, chlorophyll, commas, crosses—
a colloquy of camels, canaries, cardinals, cobras,
and condors—a confabulated collage in crayoned
chiaroscuro, chartreuse, cherry, cinnabar, carmine,
coral coloring cadavers, camellias, cannabis, candles,
coconuts...a cacophony of clavichords and clarinets,
a cackle of cockatoos, castanets clacking, cabooses
careening, a congress of cats caterwauling, carillons
chiming—all compassing toward a celestially choreographed
confluence of comets cascading in currents
and cataracts in constant, cosmic circles.
Sue William Silverman’s first memoir, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You (University of Georgia Press, 6th printing), won the Associated Writing Programs Award Series in creative nonfiction. Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey Through Sexual Addiction (W. W. Norton), her second memoir, is under development for a Lifetime television movie. Her books have been translated into German, Japanese, Norwegian, and Chinese. Individual poems, essays, stories have appeared in such places as Prairie Schooner, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Redbook, WordWrights, Charleston Review, Water~Stone, The Writer’s Chronicle, Southern Poetry Review, Mid-America Poetry Review, Potomac Review, The Caribbean Writer, Eleventh Muse, Paper Street Press, Harpur Palate, Brevity, and Louisville Review. She teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College. Please visit www.suewilliamsilverman.com