My Spirits Congregate
BY PADMA THORNLYRE
Asleep, I sing; my spirits congregate,
From padma realms evoked to view and bless
The synchronicity of breath we share;
Adorn with lotus-buds our rest; anoint
With lotus-dew your silk of dryad-skin,
Your mortal limbs by dance immortalized
(Eternity in gestures realized,
Suspended thus by grace immaculate);
With supple, scented plumes caress your hair,
Its scattered stillness cast to crest upon
My cheeks and plummet, saturate my dreams.
With spirits wandering, I wade by cress
And mint to sip your crescive opiates.
Padma Thornlyre
Padma Thornlyre has published 10 books of poetry—most recently his Anxiety Quartet in 2020-21, and one book of translations from the Ukrainian of Lyudmyla Diadchenko, Magnetic Storms (2023). He has also written a novel which is so noncommercial that even interested agents take a pass. He designs books for the poetry co-op, Turkey Buzzard Press, and occasionally takes on multi-arts projects under the Mad Blood banner. He was born and spent most of his life in Colorado, but now lives in northern New Mexico. His poetry and translations have been published in Poetry, Yellow Silk, Rattle, and Gargoyle, among others. New translations of Diadchenko will be featured in Ginosko Literary Journal Issue 35 (nine poems), and in Ezra: an online journal of translation Winter 2026 (six poems).
