Echo Park Gōngshi

I unearthed a scholar's stone

While digging sedge in garden,

Set nodule vertically 

On wooden step and it kept

Its pose. Rock was olive drab,

Pimpled with translucent crust,

Ruptured by holes teasing depth.

How unique specimen came

To my lot of clay soil

Is true mystery to me.

Ancient savants scrutinized

Such forms, mentally wandered

Miniature surfaces

As if on mythic travels;

White splashes of silica

Mimicked pools and caverns.

I sit outside this evening,

Sirens frequent boulevard.

I turn newfound stone in hands,

Trek its outcroppings under

Moonlight; stub my toe on jade.

Laura Stickney  2026

Notes:

Gōngshi or scholar's stones are

naturally occurring rocks collected

by Chinese literati. These small stones

can be displayed on stands and appreciated

as tiny yet intense experiences of nature.

sedge--An invasive weed.

savants--wise and learnèd scholars.

silica--a white mineral

photographs by Laura Stickney of

stone she found in her garden. 

image of detail of Chines landscape 

painting.

                                                                                    

 

Greatcoats

Doughboy greatcoats

Hang on circular chrome 

Rack in thrift shop,

A platoon of heavy wool,

Tone of acidy mire,

With "stand and fall' collars

Surely tight around a young man's

Neck.

I move my hands through coats,

The swivel-hooks clang and clang

As garments arc shiny meridian;

I imagine world from above,

And from the side of my eye,

And from a southern pole,

See young men's souls

Housed by true tents

Of rough weave.

Some believe ringing a bell

Clears spirits,

Here ringing makes presence

Imminent,

Here ringing is a marker of pause.

I envision a foot soldier

By thrift store door,

He wears greatcoat

All buttoned up;

The collar rigid 'round his neck

Like grim petals.

Laura Stickney 2026

Notes:

Doughboy--American infantry soldier in WW1.

Greatcoats--A large, double-breasted overcoat 

issued to soldiers in WW1.

mire--Deep heavy mud

meridian--A great circle on earth's surface 

running pole to pole.

photo--Antique postcard image of anonymous

WW1 soldier  c. 1917.

 

Jamb Figure

This angel of Reims

Sculpted in 1240

Is a pan-gender being;

They stand eight feet tall,

Their name is Gabriel

And they smile to all.

Saint Joan must have

Seen them

As she escorted 

A fluxile Dauphin

To 1429 coronation.

The Reims angel,

Damaged in World War I

Was put back together

And still looks down

to those entering

Main cathedral door.

And what can we

Learn from this

Portal guide--

Be kind, be vigilant,

Wounds will heal

And still be visible,

Don't forget love

Is always present,

And

Coming forward-- 

Laura Stickney 2026

Notes--

Reims Cathedral is located in northeastern

France. It is a world-renowned Gothic

masterpiece. It was the traditional coronation

site of French Kings.

jamb--the vertical posts or pieces on a door

Gabriel--the Angel of the Annunciation and a divine

messenger

Saint Joan-- Joan of Arc

fluxile-- an archaic word meaning inconstant, variable

Dauphin-- Title given to eldest son of a king of France,

or the heir apparent to the French crown.

photograph-- antique postcard of Reims smiling angel

 

                                                                                   

 Brueghel on Portand Avenue      for Renee Good

A poet lies on the snow,

And through her windshield

A popped red sun--

Brueghel's modern minions

Are slaughtering innocents:

ICE officers wear Kevlar,

Not medieval steel,

Agents carry rifles--lance like--

Glommings of persons

Activate winter void,

Black sheathed elms brace

Beside crime-scene curbs.

A poet lies on the snow

And through her windshield

A poked red sun--

Inside her vehicle the headrest

Holds bloody aureole,

Here one venerable, was excised--

The outside sweep of freeze

Retains trajectory

Of Renee's tires turning

In considered arc,

Then instantly

Four shots--

Her last line re-calls

That's fine dude I'm not mad at you

Laura Stickney 2026

Notes:

images-- "The Massacre of the Innocents,

Pieter Breughel the younger, oil on panel.

Flemish recasting of the biblical story,

16th century

screen shot of news footage of 34th 

and Portland Avenue, Minneapolis,

January 7, 2026, 11:48 am, CST.

aureole--a circle

venerable--honorable, respected

 

Touchpoint       for Melinda Burczycki

Let's bewitch panes of glass

Glazing storefront displays--

At twilight I stare

Into empty tableau,

See Isabelle, Dad's

Sister I'll never meet,

Working as window

Dresser at Sak's,

In Detroit, 1940.

She mounds floorboards

Of her stage

With gypsum snow drifts,

Fabricates an imploring 

Tree of Love; the branches

Curve like atria, snare

Silk-lingerie arabesques

With its briar.

Across from tree,

A female mannequin

Sits in boudoir chair,

Her head tilts to side,

Figure wears quilted robe,

It angulates her lithe 

Form, provides softness

And concealment;

Is she waiting for a lover,

Or has the lover gone?

Isabelle dusty with bogus snow,

Notices me observing her

And taps on front glass--

I'm holding my sketchbook

And pencils,

She scrutinizes my face,

The resemblance to her

Brother must be striking--

Soon Issy

Will have two heart attacks

And perish;

She watches me walk away

Down 2nd Avenue

Under an ombré sky,

Until we both disappear--

Laura Stickney 2025

Notes:

photograph of Isabelle Stickney's 

store front lingerie display, Sak's

Department store, Detroit, Michigan,

1940's

 

Total Lunar Eclipse, March 2025

for "Moonie" Haddow Fall, born in November 1852,

who like her great-grand daughter, looked often at

the moon.

No sharp paring, but the shadow of Earth's sleeve

Between Sol and its silver ornament--

By porch light I draw Moon receding,

No sharp paring, but the shadow of Earth's sleeve

Makes lunar brightness aggrieved,

And stains orb rufescent.

No sharp paring, but the shadow of Earth's sleeve

Between Sol and its silver ornament.

Laura Stickney 2025

Notes:

paring--hard-edged shape

Sol--the sun

rufescent--tinged reddish brown

progressive drawings of lunar eclipse, 

March 2025 by Laura Stickney.

 

Enewetok Atoll, 1954

Tiny murex snail shell, talisman of sorrow,

Shaped like grenade or pandanus that's cracked,

Foundling from despoiled sea and atomic gallows.

Tiny murex snail shell, talisman of sorrow,

Left behind in diaspora that followed;

All poisoning traveled thru marrows intact.

Tiny murex snail shell, talisman of sorrow,

Shaped like grenade or pandanus that's cracked.

Laura Stickney 2025

Notes:

Enewetak Atoll-- Large atoll of islands

in the Marshall Islands. Forty-three 

atmospheric nuclear tests were conducted

by US military in Enewetak Atoll from 1948

to 1958. Enewetak Atoll is still radioactive

today. Contaminated soil is stored on site

within a huge concrete dome that itself is

cracking.  

Murex-- Marine gastropods. The snail shell

in photograph is a Tenguella granulata from

Enewetak Atoll.

Pandanus-- A tropical plant with fibrous, edible

fruit.

Diaspora-- At Enewetak Atoll, prior to nuclear

tests, people of Enewetak experienced forced

dispersion and removal from their original

homeland. They developed illnesses from

radioactive fallout and widespread contamination

throughout the area.

Photograph of murex snail shell by Laura Stickney