This Dull Chaos, 1:20 TRT
“this dull chaos,” wants to track a very specific emotion, through at least a singular episode of social chaos, right down to the family function. an episode where the speaker wants to escape, if just for a moment, or from a cycle of these moments, even if that escape’s no larger than one’s own mind, if that be a measure. these moments, hell bent on frightening the psyche, remind me of the love we often run from, the love that we don’t always get to keep, conflict, peace and how this breaks down at the infamous and beautiful family gathering. the photographs seek out angles, similar to the way a spider web’s thread does. also in its construction, with a center, “like an ambition done sat up in you,” I once heard an elder Black deacon say. it explores this episode of social chaos while simultaneously commenting on episodes or cycles of social chaos we witness at large and outside the walls of the home. the photographs move chaotically, not caught by any one rhythm. their changes are responses to certain disruptions. the speaker is frantic and at times, seems to wish to get a signal outside this one house for help, even if that help is time, relief or any mode of meditation and or sense-making.
A. H. Jerriod Avant is from Longtown, MS. A graduate of Jackson State University, he’s earned M.F.A. degrees from Spalding University and New York University. A graduate of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, his poems have appeared in the Mississippi Review, Boston Review, Pinwheel and Callaloo. He was a finalist for the 2015 Mississippi Review Prize and a recipient of a Vermont Studio Center residency. Jerriod is the 2nd-year poetry fellow at the FINE ARTS WORK CENTER in Provincetown.
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