Snake ― Second Wind

Snake: Second Wind continues the apocalyptic narrative introduced in its prequel,Snake, where all organic forms are destroyed by the planet Earth in a retributive act of self defense. From these destroyed forms the genderless eternal voice of snake is born. InSecond Wind the poems—with choral asides—explore the possibility that life is only an agreed upon illusion, only real within a certain narrow bandwidth in the sense fog is created by a confluence of heat and moisture for an undetermined time until it disappears back to it’s constituents. The poems in Second Wind describe and channel the invisible realities infinitely curled around the visible ones—where fictions—invented stories—dreams, the aspirations and histories—the living and the presumed dead—are all present and real forever.

Gary Lemons studied for two years with Donald Justice, Norman Dubie and Marvin Bell in the Undergraduate Poetry Workshop at Iowa City from 1971–1973. He has published three books of poetry—the last of which—Snake (Red Hen Press 2012) is the first book of the Snake Quartet. For decades he fished Alaska, built grain elevators, worked high steel and re-forested the clear cuts of the Pacific Northwest. Currently he and his wife, the artist Nole Giulini, teach yoga from their studio, Tenderpaws.