
Fresh Pages
By James Croal Jackson
Eternity evolving personal calligraphy
so that my hand would discern self-
iconographs. Is consciousness erasable?
Write letters to the past knowing no
former you will ever receive it. If only
specific wisdoms were passed down
through genetics. Instead we enter
the world knowing nothing but how
to breathe. I’ve come to take these
poetry whims as dimes of good
ideas. I can write for hours, days
on end, the zenith somewhere along
the distant shores. What creative wants
to die within their sorrow’s reach?

James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet working in film production. His latest chapbook is A God You Believed In (Pinhole Poetry, 2023). Recent poems are in ITERANT, Skipjack Review, and The Indianapolis Review. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Nashville, Tennessee.