Karen Luke Jackson

Frozen Music

Karen Luke Jackson

Baffled in high school geometry by isosceles triangles, algebraic formulas and a theorem Pythagoras handed down to students, I had no clue mathematics and music share a pattern of perfect intervals, ratios used to design vaults and chancels in Gothic cathedrals and Cistercian abbeys, lilting columns of draped stone, frozen music. Too young then, ears deaf to the clefs, anatomy and overtones that loosen ligaments, wobble bones, evoke pain or bliss depending upon how jarring or sublime the fatal kiss.

Karen Luke Jackson, author of The View Ever Changing, 2021, and GRIT, 2020, draws inspiration from contemplative practices, nature, family stories, and clowning. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Ruminate, Broad River Review (Ron Rash Poetry Award), Atlanta Review, One, Redheaded Stepchild, and Kestrel. Karen resides in a cottage on a goat pasture in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. www.karenlukejackson.com