The Poem ANTI-MASS in the Loose Leaf Tea Literary Journal

A short prose poem entitled ANTI-MASS appears in the new literary journal Loose Leaf Tea: A Journal of Cultural Expression. The on-line publication opens and reads like a "book", so…

A short prose poem entitled ANTI-MASS appears in the new literary journal Loose Leaf Tea: A Journal of Cultural Expression. The on-line publication opens and reads like a "book", so look for it on page 68:

Loose Leaf Tea Literary Journal

The poem is based on a stunning art piece made from the burnt timbers of an African American church, hanging from the ceiling of the de Young Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA.

Here's a copy of the prose poem below:

Anti-Mass

  Charcoal and Wire modern art piece by Cornelia Parker

Charred remains of a Southern Black Baptist Church destroyed by arsonists hang from the ceiling, blackened board fragments suspended in air by wire in a perfect rectangle, defying gravity, floating as a miraculous spectral object—the lost church. The bodily presence of its congregation made more powerful by their absence. The unthinkable happens. The sign says Mass: elemental substance of the universe; and the sacramental ritual at the center of Christian faith. This blackened sculpture an Anti-Mass, then. Nails still embedded in wood.