Glassblowing Class by Julia Caroline Knowlton

Glassblowing Class

We pick our colors: I choose “gems.”
Staring at the furnace blaze
beyond white hot, beyond any word,
I think of my body after my death.

I drive the thought away.
It is my turn to blow air into
an ash-colored blob of viscous glass.
We are all middle-aged,

tired, on a cloudy afternoon.
We stand in a half circle. Pushing
every bit of air out of my lungs,
I push the death thought away.

At the end of the steel blowpipe
my fiery lump opens into secrets
of ruby and emerald, sapphire and amethyst,
a pure sphere blooming like a wish.

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Julia Caroline Knowlton teaches French and creative writing at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta. Recognition for her poetry includes an Academy of American Poets College Prize and a 2018 GA Author of the Year award. She is the author of six books, including her 2023 chapbook Life of the Mind (Kelsay Books).