Written in 2025, this sequence constitutes a surreal, often lyrical “journal of consciousness,” offering a series of vertiginous perspectives on contemporary life: “Don’t tell the devouring goddess/Death too’s a sort of miracle.” Pieces are in a syllabic form, the 478, devised by the author based on a yoga breathing practice. They register seasonal changes, sensory phenomena, political cataclysms, dream fragments, fantasy projections, appeals to the spirit world. Plots, hinted at but ultimately elusive, function as trellises supporting tendrils of free association. Meant to have the resonance of song lyrics or nursery rhymes, the work will benefit from being read aloud.

Apophenia, Jan Clausen

April, 2026

Jan Clausen is the author of six full-length poetry collections, including Veiled Spill: A Sequence (GenPop). Her poems have appeared in Action, Spectacle, AGNI, Electric Literature, Fence, Firmament, Kenyon Review, Makhzin, Mercury Firs, Ploughshares, SurVision, Tupelo Quarterly, and many other journals. She has also published two novels, a volume of short stories, and the memoir Apples and Oranges (Seven Stories). Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she has lived in Brooklyn, New York since the mid-1970s.