Still Life With Sky, Coffee, Tulips, Anna Karenina, and God

IF 0.1 4区文学 0 LITERARY REVIEWS

SEWANEE REVIEW Pub Date : 2024-05-06 DOI:10.1353/sew.2024.a926962

Shannon Pratson

{"title":"Still Life With Sky, Coffee, Tulips, Anna Karenina, and God","authors":"Shannon Pratson","doi":"10.1353/sew.2024.a926962","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:\n <ul> <li> Still Life With Sky, Coffee, Tulips, Anna Karenina, and God </li> <li> Shannon Pratson (bio) </li> </ul> Grocery store tulips. Empty coffee cupin the sink. Morning sky smearedpink, like the insideof a salmon. I have been lonely in so many citiesand now I am lonely in absenceof the city, the crowd at the Metthat made me small and wholeas a seed. How do other people pray? I pray the way I read Russian novels,get as far as the first chapter. I go: Ahem! and then Please, God—and that’s about it. I hope that hopeis enough. [End Page 278] I think a lot of peoplehave wasted a lot of timetrying to please God,that this is because peoplegot a lot of things wrongaround the third century— for starters, that Mary Magdalenewas a prostitute or that it evenmattered. I would rather spend my time learningto make pasta with my hands, growing squashout of the ground, finishingAnna Karenina, than guesswhat God wants.At a bright diner, I drag blueberry pancakethrough maple syrup and tell a friendI would like to be rich and for the rest of the dayI want to take a shower, wash my wordsoff my skin, watch their ink run,commas catchin the drain. I do not need to know what pleases Godto know that wealth and its ruthless pursuitdoes not please God. Just as I know I buy tulips from the grocery storeto stay the feeling of homesicknesseven if I do not knowwhat home looks like. [End Page 279] Shannon Pratson Shannon Pratson is a writer and artist. She holds an MFA from Virginia Tech and lives in London. Copyright © 2024 The University of the South ... ","PeriodicalId":43824,"journal":{"name":"SEWANEE REVIEW","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"SEWANEE REVIEW","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sew.2024.a926962","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERARY REVIEWS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Still Life With Sky, Coffee, Tulips, Anna Karenina, and God
Shannon Pratson (bio)

Grocery store tulips. Empty coffee cupin the sink. Morning sky smearedpink, like the insideof a salmon.

I have been lonely in so many citiesand now I am lonely in absenceof the city, the crowd at the Metthat made me small and wholeas a seed.

How do other people pray?

I pray the way I read Russian novels,get as far as the first chapter.

I go: Ahem! and then Please, God—and that’s about it.

I hope that hopeis enough. [End Page 278]

I think a lot of peoplehave wasted a lot of timetrying to please God,that this is because peoplegot a lot of things wrongaround the third century—

for starters, that Mary Magdalenewas a prostitute or that it evenmattered.

I would rather spend my time learningto make pasta with my hands, growing squashout of the ground, finishingAnna Karenina, than guesswhat God wants.At a bright diner, I drag blueberry pancakethrough maple syrup and tell a friendI would like to be rich and for the rest of the dayI want to take a shower, wash my wordsoff my skin, watch their ink run,commas catchin the drain.

I do not need to know what pleases Godto know that wealth and its ruthless pursuitdoes not please God.

Just as I know I buy tulips from the grocery storeto stay the feeling of homesicknesseven if I do not knowwhat home looks like. [End Page 279]

Shannon Pratson

Shannon Pratson is a writer and artist. She holds an MFA from Virginia Tech and lives in London.

查看原文本刊更多论文

有天空、咖啡、郁金香、安娜-卡列尼娜和上帝的静物画

以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：有天空、咖啡、郁金香、安娜-卡列尼娜和上帝的静物香农-普拉森（简历杂货店的郁金香。水槽里的空咖啡杯。早晨的天空被染成粉红色，就像三文鱼的内脏。我在许多城市里都很孤独，而现在我在没有城市的地方也很孤独，大都会的人群让我变得渺小而完整，就像一粒种子。其他人是如何祈祷的？我用读俄罗斯小说的方式祈祷，读到第一章。我开始然后 "上帝，求求你"，仅此而已。我希望希望就够了。[我认为很多人为了取悦上帝浪费了很多时间，这是因为人们在三世纪时弄错了很多事情--比如，抹大拉的马利亚是个妓女，或者它甚至碎裂了。在明亮的餐厅里，我用蓝莓煎饼蘸着枫糖浆，告诉朋友我想变得富有，然后在接下来的日子里，我想洗个澡，把我的文字从皮肤上洗掉，看着它们墨迹流淌，逗号在下水道里打转。我不需要知道上帝喜悦的是什么，也知道财富及其无情的追求并不能取悦上帝。就像我知道我从杂货店买郁金香是为了保持思乡之情，即使我不知道家是什么样子。[香农-普拉森香农-普拉森是一位作家和艺术家。她拥有弗吉尼亚理工大学艺术硕士学位，现居伦敦。版权所有 © 2024 南方大学 ...

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

SEWANEE REVIEW LITERARY REVIEWS-

CiteScore

0.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Having never missed an issue in 115 years, the Sewanee Review is the oldest continuously published literary quarterly in the country. Begun in 1892 at the University of the South, it has stood as guardian and steward for the enduring voices of American, British, and Irish literature. Published quarterly, the Review is unique in the field of letters for its rich tradition of literary excellence in general nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, and for its dedication to unvarnished no-nonsense literary criticism. Each volume is a mix of short reviews, omnibus reviews, memoirs, essays in reminiscence and criticism, poetry, and fiction.