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A Beating Heart
Joshua Ehlrich
→BFA ILLU 2026
This digital spatial poetry archive features poems by Joshua Ehrlich, Anjali Gauld, and John Gonzalez. To see how these bodies of texts are transformed into living, breathing, and evolving creatures, click on the link below.
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The Reeds
The forest formed a thick veil of protection.
Hurdling beams shot through
the air, unsettling the ceiling
that she so missed.
Inside a giant crater was the bed of birds and flow of stems.
The sky, with its bright, benevolent sun
wept warmth past each stalk.
When she left the stone hut that wrapped the edge of the world, it began:
Cyra could barely see, so instead she listened.
In exchange she heard things her brother could not.
She heard his undulating heartbeat.
She smelled gunpowder and steel, wilting as she walked, dodging through branches.
They weaved through bristling spikes that reached up and far above to crown the forest.
Not two minutes away by foot, in the very same acre, Small Scarrow shook.
He was not afraid, but physically overwhelmed.
His clothing was strewn, ripped.
Small Scarrow held a gun.
He had taken it in the same manner which any person might take an object handed to them, and later be confused
as to why they’d accepted it.
Cyra’s brother, Tarin, was not aware of any of this—not even his sister, who trailed so closely behind him.
Two hours ago, he had taken a large dose of
painkillers in anticipation of his murder.
These three—Cyra, Tarin, and Small Scarrow—had, over the past hour, reached a strange, fragmented balance.
This ordered march was fragile.
Just one shift of vision or pattern of thought might break the cycle.
A test of probability.
Please mark the
correct answer:
[A] Cyra
hears Scarrow
[B] Tarin
sees Scarrow
[C] Scarrow
turns around
Scarrow racked his mind-
I can’t be sure.
I can’t unlearn.
I can’t unsee.
The sun beat
down and filled
his lungs.
Hand tremor.
Metal on
wool.
He heard
the crater’s
silence
blind the blind.
A bird leapt
from a thin trunk
into another,
breaking its
body
against the
reeds.
Joshua T Ehrlich "Hyundai" 2003 password 3810
→ Left-click drag to rotate
Right-click drag to pan ←
↑Scroll to change zoom level ↓
Tab to write your own
The Reeds
The forest formed a thick veil of protection.
Hurdling beams shot through
the air, unsettling the ceiling
that she so missed.
Inside a giant crater was the bed of birds and flow of stems.
The sky, with its bright, benevolent sun
wept warmth past each stalk.
When she left the stone hut that wrapped the edge of the world, it began:
Cyra could barely see, so instead she listened.
In exchange she heard things her brother could not.
She heard his undulating heartbeat.
She smelled gunpowder and steel, wilting as she walked, dodging through branches.
They weaved through bristling spikes that reached up and far above to crown the forest.
Not two minutes away by foot, in the very same acre, Small Scarrow shook.
He was not afraid, but physically overwhelmed.
His clothing was strewn, ripped.
Small Scarrow held a gun.
He had taken it in the same manner which any person might take an object handed to them, and later be confused
as to why they’d accepted it.
Cyra’s brother, Tarin, was not aware of any of this—not even his sister, who trailed so closely behind him.
Two hours ago, he had taken a large dose of
painkillers in anticipation of his murder.
These three—Cyra, Tarin, and Small Scarrow—had, over the past hour, reached a strange, fragmented balance.
This ordered march was fragile.
Just one shift of vision or pattern of thought might break the cycle.
A test of probability.
Please mark the
correct answer:
[A] Cyra
hears Scarrow
[B] Tarin
sees Scarrow
[C] Scarrow
turns around
Scarrow racked his mind-
I can’t be sure.
I can’t unlearn.
I can’t unsee.
The sun beat
down and filled
his lungs.
Hand tremor.
Metal on
wool.
He heard
the crater’s
silence
blind the blind.
A bird leapt
from a thin trunk
into another,
breaking its
body
against the
reeds.
Joshua T Ehrlich "Hyundai" 2003 password 3810