*Selection from a longer manuscript inspired by H.D. in Conversation with Sappho: Poiesis in Motion

Shilo Previti & Grant McMillan

Paper Birch

…
]
]
                                                            ]

i am greedy: i would touch the sky with all of my nakedness, soaking sun and warmth &
…warm water, plush-feeling, eyes closed for the…

[
[

“and I on a soft pillow will lay down my limbs”
& the smell of the prairie, not salty but sweet, almost as good as Sappho-sea.
…                               
                                    ]
                                                                        ]

Appendix: “Paper Birch” unfragmented text and references

& trees with leaves like apricots (paper birches?) against blueblueblue
imagine seeing the whole life of the space through the veins of a leaf overhead, shadowed by the paper birches’ own curling tendrils cutting the sky like glass, glass like solid blue.
i want to taste the sky (!)

“I would not think to touch the sky with two arms” Why not?

i am greedy: i would touch the sky with all of my nakedness, soaking sun and warmth &
walking hand cast out to side, fingers brush against taller grasses like sea anemone. air cool like warm water, plush-feeling, eyes closed for the gentlejoy of surprise when some grass touches back, casting up greenly against a freckled hand cast out.
Delightful.

“and I on a soft pillow will lay down my limbs”

& the smell of the prairie, not salty but sweet, almost as good as Sappho-sea.
what might she say about this place, as alive as the shores of Lesbos, as teeming-full as that landscape, if she layed here in the grass? a good couch, a bed.
Warm where it is cold.

---

Works Cited

“North Dakota Tree Handbook.” N.D. Tree Handbook, North Dakota Tree Information Center, North Dakota State University & ND Forestry Service.
Sappho. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Translated by Anne Carson, Vintage, 2003.