miscarriage if i don’t call tonight that’ll be the space to slump a little, give a little. like a lemonade lazy barefoot day, the perfect peace of 3 a.m., soft down of hair along your forearm, rumbling lull of tires against empty stretch of highway; hypnotize me that way. the tickle of a whisper against [...]
Tag: poetry
My Symphony by William Ellery Channing
My Symphony William Ellery Channing To live content with small means. To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion. To be worthy not respectable, and wealthy not rich. To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes, and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, [...]
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Marrow (A Sort of Update)
56 poems into my manuscript and I'm back to Day One. On Day One, I was enrolled in the workshop where the project was born. A. Van Jordan, our instructor, had us select a historic event and try writing about it. Often, okay it is the case for me and I can only speak for [...]
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Conversations That Happen in My Head #2
Been writing a lot this first part of the week and this soundtrack from Kwame Dawes has been in my head most of that time thanks to my writer-friend Yao: MEMOS TO POETS a 'twitter' journey #1 Banned: The metaphorical heart. ”Heartburn” is allowed, however. ”Heartache” too, only if a coronary is involved. #2 The [...]
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Monthly Meter: July
fellowship/publication submissions: 0 Momentum is a terrible thing to waste. fellowship/publication acceptances: 0 "Sometimes this happens. It means nothing. So pull the shadows around you like a puff and get back to work. More opportunities scramble forth, trailing their long elegant heels of hot air with alice blue eyes, crinkled as if at the most [...]
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Confusing the Tongues
“every man prays in his own tongue and there is no language that god doesn’t understand.” Duke Ellington
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Fever
Every woman begins as weather, sips slow thunder, knows her hips. Every woman harbors a chaos, can wait for it, straddling a fever. from "5 p.m., Tuesday, August 23, 2005" by Patricia Smith Blood Dazzler Copyright © 2008 Coffee House Press
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We all fight our own wars.
...and sometimes we make it through the mayhem and then the wreckage, through no fault of our own. I love this poem. Facing It Yusef Komunyakaa My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn't dammit: No tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a [...]
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Monthly Meter: June
fellowship/publication submissions: 4 fellowship/publication acceptances: 1 fellowship/publication rejections: 3 (2 said "We are interested in seeing more of your work" which validates me in ways I shouldn't need nor admit.) books: Native Guard by Natasha Tretheway (our new poet laureate) Secret Shame: Acne scars on my cheeks. Yes, I am that vain. Mantra of the Moment: [...]
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Long Story Short
what happened to you to make you want to happen to me this way? did it tickle at first then sting and did you feel like washing it until it bled? did the line crust and scab eventually? or when, actually, did gangrene rot away your reasons and turn you into the amputee whose feelings [...]
darlene anita scott 