Self-Portrait in Ink<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As the gone-
\ntranslucent<\/p>\n
octopus
\njet-blasts into evasion, vanishing<\/p>\n
while its ink-sac spurts
\na cloud of defensive<\/p>\n
mucus & coagulant
\nazure-black pigment,<\/p>\n
self-shaped
\noctopus imago in ink, so the shark<\/p>\n
gnashes at that blobbed
\nsepia phantom,<\/p>\n
pseudomorph
\nthat disperses into black<\/p>\n
nebulae & shreds
\nwith each shark-strike<\/p>\n
& the escaped
\noctopus throbs<\/p>\n
beyond, see-through
\nin the see-through water, untouched\u2014:<\/p>\n
so, go
\nlittle poem, little<\/p>\n
ink-smudge-on-fingertip
\n& -print, mimicker<\/p>\n
& camouflage,
\nself-getaway, cloud-<\/p>\n
scribble, write
\nout my dissipating<\/p>\n
name on the water,
\nemptied sac of self-illusive ink . . .<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Self-Portrait in Ink” is reprinted from Theophobia<\/em> (BOA, 2012).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bruce Beasley<\/a> is a professor of English at Western Washington University and the author of seven collections of poems, most recently Theophobia<\/em><\/a> (BOA Editions, 2012) and The Corpse Flower: New and Selected Poems<\/a><\/em> (University of Washington Press, 2007).\u00a0 He won the Ohio State University Press\/Journal Award for The Creation,<\/a><\/em> the Colorado Prize in Poetry (selected by Charles Wright) for Summer Mystagogia<\/a>,<\/em> and the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series Award for Lord Brain,<\/em> <\/a>a poetic meditation on neuroscience and cosmology.\u00a0 Wesleyan University Press published his books Spirituals<\/em> <\/a>(1988) and Signs and Abominations<\/em><\/a> (2000).\u00a0 Beasley has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Artist Trust, and three Pushcart prizes.\u00a0 His work<\/a> appears in the Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from the First Thirty Years of the Pushcart Prize<\/em> and other anthologies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-Portrait in Ink As the gone- translucent octopus jet-blasts into evasion, vanishing while its ink-sac spurts a cloud of defensive mucus & coagulant azure-black pigment, self-shaped octopus imago in ink, so the shark gnashes at that blobbed sepia phantom, … Continue reading