tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853211664122906942024-03-05T04:57:27.371-05:00Poetic MedicineThe poem, I’ve always felt, is an opportunity for me to create an integrated whole from so many broken shards
--Rafael CampoEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.comBlogger1700125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-67888828015974996552023-10-17T13:41:00.000-04:002023-10-17T13:41:10.446-04:00The Diameter of the BombBy Yehuda Amichai <br />
<br />
The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters<br />
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,<br />
with four dead and eleven wounded.<br />
And around these, in a larger circle<br />
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered<br />
and one graveyard. But the young woman<br />
who was buried in the city she came from,<br />
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,<br />
enlarges the circle considerably,<br />
and the solitary man mourning her death<br />
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea<br />
includes the entire world in the circle.<br />
And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans<br />
that reaches up to the throne of God and<br />
beyond, making<br />
a circle with no end and no God.Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-57500208146232438722023-07-04T13:54:00.000-04:002023-07-04T13:54:31.706-04:00Trouble With the Stars and StripesBy Naomi Shihab Nye<br />
<br />
I couldn't make my annual flag cake, the one with strawberries for stripes and blueberries for states and white mountain frosting puffing up proudly between. I couldn't even wear a bandanna on the 4th of July. It hurts, this year. Let's talk about the difference between victory and public relations. Let's talk about the size of words. I weighed words during the war, putting them on secret scales, and never once did things balance out. My husband who never shouts shouted in his sleep while the bombs were dropping, "I just don't think humans are doing a very good job!" After the war he traveled to Iraq to make photographs. We have no idea. We can still feel good in this country about what we don't see, if we give it a good enough name. All forms of righteousness begin to terrify. A presidential address, a church. My husband stares when he hears certain words. My enemy - "Who is so beautiful," he whispers.Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-21788903669904147202023-04-17T18:36:00.002-04:002023-04-17T18:36:10.497-04:00 So Many Books, So Little Time <div class="c-feature-bd" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="o-poem isActive" data-view="PoemView" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="o-vr o-vr_6x" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="c-epigraph" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For independent booksellers & librarians, especially Nichelle Hayes</span></p></div><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p></div></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By Haki Madhubuti </span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Frequently during my mornings of pain & reflection<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">when I can’t write<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or articulate my thoughts<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or locate the mindmusic needed<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to complete the poems & essays<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">that are weeks plus days overdue<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">forcing me to stop, I cease<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">answering my phone, eating right, running my miles,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">reading my mail, and making love.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Also, this is when my children do not seek me out<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">because I do not seek them out.)<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I escape north, to the nearest library or used bookstore.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They are my retreats, my quiet energy-givers, my intellectual refuge.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For me it is not bluewater beaches, theme parks,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or silent chapels hidden among forest greens.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not multi-stored American malls, corporate book<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">supermarkets, mountain trails, or Caribbean hideaways.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My sanctuaries are liberated lighthouses of shelved books,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">featuring forgotten poets, unread anthropologists of tenure-<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">seeking assistant professors, self-published geniuses, remaindered<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">first novelists, highlighting speed-written bestsellers,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">wise historians & theologians, nobel, pulitzer prize, and american book<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">award winners, poets & fiction writers, overcertain political commentators,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">small press wunderkinds & learned academics.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All are vitamins for my slow brain & sidetracked spirit in this<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">winter of creating.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I do not believe in smiling politicians, AMA doctors,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">zebra-faced bankers, red-jacketed real estate or automobile<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">salespeople, or singing preachers.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I believe in books.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It can be conveniently argued that knowledge,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">not that which is condensed or computer packaged, but<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pages of hard-fought words, dancing language<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">meticulously & contemplatively written by the likes of me & others,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">shelved imperfectly at the level of open hearts & minds,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">is preventive medicine strengthening me for the return to my<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">clear pages of incomplete ideas to be reworked, revised &<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">written as new worlds and words in all of their subjective<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">configurations to eventually be processed into books that<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">will hopefully be placed on the shelves of libraries, bookstores, homes,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">& other sanctuaries of learning to be found & browsed over by receptive<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">booklovers, readers & writers looking for a retreat,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">looking for departure & yes spaces,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">looking for open heart surgery without the knife.</span></div></div></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-23989424931241012412023-01-05T08:40:00.000-05:002023-01-05T08:40:07.704-05:00Burning the Old Year By Naomi Shihab Nye <div> </div><div>Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob, <br>
transparent scarlet paper,<br>
sizzle like moth wings,<br>
marry the air.<br>
<br>
So much of any year is flammable, <br>
lists of vegetables, partial poems. <br>
Orange swirling flame of days, <br>
so little is a stone.<br>
<br>
Where there was something and suddenly isn’t, <br>
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space. <br>
I begin again with the smallest numbers.<br>
<br>
Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves, <br>
only the things I didn’t do <br>
crackle after the blazing dies.<br>
</div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-22605880012016884742022-11-30T13:40:00.000-05:002022-11-30T13:40:42.650-05:00In Praise of Their DivorceBy Tony Hoagland<br />
<br />
And when I heard about the divorce of my friends,<br />
I couldn't help but be proud of them,<br />
<br />
that man and that woman setting off in different directions,<br />
like pilgrims in a proverb<br />
<br />
—him to buy his very own toaster oven,<br />
her seeking a prescription for sleeping pills.<br />
<br />
Let us keep in mind the hidden forces<br />
which had struggled underground for years<br />
<br />
to push their way to the surface—and that finally did,<br />
cracking the crust, moving the plates of earth apart,<br />
<br />
releasing the pent-up energy required<br />
for them to rent their own apartments,<br />
<br />
for her to join the softball league for single mothers<br />
for him to read <em> </em><br />
<em>George the Giraffe</em> over his speakerphone<br />
<br />
at bedtime to the six-year-old.<br />
<br />
The bible says, <em>Be fruitful and multiply</em><br />
<br />
but is it not also fruitful to subtract and to divide?<br />
Because if marriage is a kind of womb,<br />
<br />
divorce is the being born again;<br />
alimony is the placenta one of them will eat;<br />
<br />
loneliness is the name of the wet-nurse;<br />
regret is the elementary school;<br />
<br />
endurance is the graduation.<br />
So do not say that they are splattered like dropped lasagna<br />
<br />
or dead in the head-on collision of clichés<br />
or nailed on the cross of their competing narratives.<br />
<br />
What is taken apart is not utterly demolished.<br />
It is like a great mysterious egg in Kansas<br />
<br />
that has cracked and hatched two big bewildered birds.<br />
It is two spaceships coming out of retirement,<br />
<br />
flying away from their dead world,<br />
the burning booster rocket of divorce<br />
falling off behind them,<br />
<br />
the bystanders pointing at the sky and saying, <em>Look</em>. Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-78285482391062358872022-11-21T08:42:00.001-05:002022-11-21T08:42:24.103-05:00A Poem for Pulse By Jameson Fitzpatrick<br />
<br />
Last night, I went to a gay bar<br />
with a man I love a little.<br />
After dinner, we had a drink.<br />
We sat in the far-back of the big backyard<br />
and he asked, What will we do when this place closes?<br />
I don’t think it’s going anywhere any time soon,<br />
I said,
though the crowd was slow for a Saturday,<br />
and he said—Yes, but one day. Where will we go?<br />
He walked me the half-block home<br />
and kissed me goodnight on my stoop—<br />
properly: not too quick, close enough<br />
our stomachs pressed together<br />
in a second sort of kiss.<br />
I live next to a bar that’s not a gay bar
—<br />
we just call those bars, I guess<br />
—
and because it is popular<br />
and because I live on a busy street,<br />
there are always people who aren’t queer people<br />
on the sidewalk on weekend nights. <br />
We just call those people, I guess.<br />
They were there last night.<br />
As I kissed this man I was aware of them watching<br />
and of myself wondering whether or not they were just<br />
people. But I didn’t let myself feel scared, I kissed him<br />
exactly as I wanted to, as I would have without an audience,<br />
because I decided many years ago to refuse this fear<br />
— an act of resistance. I left<br />
the idea of hate out on the stoop and went inside,<br />
to sleep, early and drunk and happy.<br />
While I slept, a man went to a gay club<br />
with two guns and killed fifty people. At least.<br />
Today in an interview, his father said he had been disturbed<br />
by the sight of two men kissing recently.<br />
What a strange power to be cursed with,<br />
for the proof of our desire to move men to violence.<br />
What’s a single kiss? I’ve had kisses<br />
no one has ever known about, so many<br />
kisses without consequence—<br />
but there is a place you can’t outrun,<br />
whoever you are.<br />
There will be a time when.<br />
It might be a bullet, suddenly.<br />
The sound of it. Many. <br />
One man, two guns, fifty dead—<br />
Two men kissing. Last night <br />
is what I can’t get away from, imagining it, them, <br />
the people there to dance and laugh and drink, <br />
who didn’t believe they’d die, who couldn’t have. <br />
How else can you have a good time?<br />
How else can you live? <br />
There must have been two men kissing <br />
for the first time last night, and for the last,<br />
and two women, too, and two people who were neither.<br />
Brown people mostly, which cannot be a coincidence in this country. <br />
which is a racist country, which is gun country.<br />
Today I’m thinking of the Bernie Boston photograph <br />
Flower Power, of the Vietnam protestor placing carnations<br />
in the rifles of the National Guard,<br />
and wishing for a gesture as queer and simple.<br />
The protester in the photo was gay, you know,<br />
he went by Hibiscus and died of AIDS,<br />
which I am also thinking about today because<br />
(the government’s response to) AIDS was a hate crime.<br />
Reagan was a terrorist.<br />
Now we have a president who loves Us,<br />
the big and imperfectly lettered Us, and here we are<br />
getting kissed on stoops, getting married some of Us,<br />
some of Us getting killed.<br />
We must love one another whether or not we die.<br />
Love can’t block a bullet<br />
but it can’t be destroyed by one either,<br />
and love is, for the most part, what makes Us Us—<br />
in Orlando and in Brooklyn and in Kabul.<br />
We will be everywhere, always;<br />
there’s nowhere else for Us, or you, to go.<br />
Anywhere you run in this world, love will be there to greet you.<br />
Around any corner, there might be two men. Kissing.Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-90305158537549667242022-10-30T09:57:00.000-04:002022-10-30T09:57:47.405-04:00Behaving Like a JewBy Gerald Stern<br />
<br />
When I got there the dead opossum looked like<br />
an enormous baby sleeping on the road.<br />
It took me only a few seconds—just<br />
seeing him there—with the hole in his back<br />
and the wind blowing through his hair<br />
to get back again into my animal sorrow.<br />
I am sick of the country, the bloodstained<br />
bumpers, the stiff hairs sticking through the grilles,<br />
the slimy highways, the heavy birds<br />
refusing to move;<br />
I am sick of the spirit of Lindbergh over everything,<br />
that joy in death, that philosophical<br />
understanding of carnage, that<br />
concentration on the species.<br />
---I am going to be unappeased at the opossum's death.<br />
I am going to behave like a Jew<br />
and touch his face, and stare into his eyes,<br />
and pull him off the road.<br />
I am not going to stand in a wet ditch<br />
with the Toyotas and the Chevys passing over me<br />
at sixty miles an hour<br />
and praise the beauty and the balance<br />
and lose myself in the immortal lifestream<br />
when my hands are still a little shaky<br />
from his stiffness and his bulk<br />
and my eyes are still weak and misty<br />
from his round belly and his curved fingers<br />
and his black whiskers and his little dancing feet.Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-15998368319019181192022-10-11T08:09:00.000-04:002022-10-11T08:09:00.176-04:00Third GenderBy Kit Yan <br />
<br />
all right so gender should be as simple as gay or straight<br />
cuz if you are attracted to the opposite gender<br />
you’re straight<br />
if you are attracted to the same gender<br />
well i guess you’re gay<br />
therefore if you have a penis you’re a man<br />
and if you have a vagina you’re a woman<br />
straight shot<br />
straight answer<br />
gender<br />
see gender is man next to woman<br />
not touching but separate<br />
gender is america’s controlled nationalism bullshit<br />
gender is birth certificates for babies born into gender<br />
housing applications check boxes and even getting an email address<br />
this is gender<br />
but i ask you<br />
is it truly worth<br />
embarrassment<br />
imprisonment<br />
or harassment<br />
for your gender identity?<br />
so excuse me are you a man or are you a woman<br />
and you’ve changed your name to Kit now<br />
so do you wanna be straight?<br />
and you look like a boy now so you’re straight, right?<br />
but back when you were Laura you were gay<br />
as if sexuality and gender were something that you could purchase on impulse<br />
pulling up to the register and carefully picking out<br />
gay straight<br />
man or woman<br />
neatly packaged for easy consumption<br />
then you should be able to do it with ease<br />
purchasing a gold foiled bar of gay and plastic bag of man<br />
and walking out of that grocery store fabulously onto the set of Queer Eye<br />
but it’s not that easy<br />
because sometimes my gender is<br />
boy who looks like a girl who likes boys<br />
and sometimes my gender is trans<br />
and sometimes my gender is chilling out in between<br />
but most of the time my gender is fuck you mind your own business<br />
but it can’t be that way<br />
because gender is so rigidly defined<br />
neatly outlined and nicely colonized<br />
organized and clearly understandable<br />
yet the gap is becoming gendered and<br />
i’m standing in line for the bathroom with<br />
girls birls boys bis transsexual transgendered queer questioning curious polyamorous intersexed flexual asexual trisexual omnisexual multisexual pansexual gender neutral genderqueer multigendered androgynous drag king drag queen butch femme fairy two-spirit bear dyke lipstick tranny boi (with an i) ftm mtf boydyke bi-dyke half-dyke queerboi ex-straight and that’s just the beginning<br />
but ask a member of the Zuni tribe about the lhamana’s gender<br />
and they’ll tell you it’s lhamana<br />
the South Asians about the hijaras<br />
and they’ll tell you that it’s hijaras<br />
the Hawaiians about mahus<br />
and they’ll tell you that it’s mahu<br />
the Americans about the trannies<br />
and they’ll tell you that they don’t know<br />
see there may be as many as a million genders identities and sexualities<br />
just floating around waiting for the right person to snatch them up<br />
put them on and proudly parade around in their new skin<br />
unrestricted by layers and identity<br />
or limitations of culture society or social construction<br />
this new gender is a function of inner desire and<br />
genuine understanding of self to be lived<br />
so go ahead<br />
and show us where the bathroom isEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-50230545183121269442022-10-10T02:00:00.003-04:002022-10-10T02:00:00.179-04:00alternate names for black boysBy Danez Smith<br />
<br />
<div class="poem">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
1. smoke above the burning bush</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
2. archnemesis of summer night</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
3. first son of soil</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
4. coal awaiting spark & wind</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
5. guilty until proven dead</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
6. oil heavy starlight</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
7. monster until proven ghost</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
8. gone</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
9. phoenix who forgets to un-ash</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
10. going, going, gone</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
11. gods of shovels & black veils</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
12. what once passed for kindling</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
13. fireworks at dawn</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
14. brilliant, shadow hued coral</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
15. (I thought to leave this blank</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
but who am I to name us nothing?)</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
16. prayer who learned to bite & sprint</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
17. a mother’s joy & clutched breath</div>
</div>
Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-12954986726756611602022-10-09T02:00:00.001-04:002022-10-09T10:51:12.847-04:00 Approaching Waterfalls By Gerry Fabian
<br /><br />
We are not pandemic appropriate.<br />A small bar restaurant<br />no one can enter;<br />we are like a polluted river.<br />We wisely make the early switch<br />to the current of take out and delivery.<br />The business government check<br />is like temporary patch on a large leak.<br />Weekend sales<br />like a row boat with one oar<br />barely keeping us afloat.<br />We can now hear<br />the sounds of falls<br />in the distance.
<br /><br /><i>R. Gerry Fabian is a published poet and novelist. </i><i>He has published four books of his published poems, Parallels, </i><i style="font-family: inherit;">Coming Out Of The Atlantic, Electronic Forecasts and Ball On The Mound<span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">. </span></i><i style="font-family: inherit;">In addition, he has published four novels : Getting Lucky (The Story), </i><i style="font-family: inherit;">Memphis Masquerade, Seventh Sense and Ghost Girl. </i>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-80651975298977791592022-10-08T17:22:00.000-04:002022-10-08T17:22:56.945-04:00The Moon is Trans By Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
<br />
<br />
From this moment forward, the moon is trans.<br />
You don’t get to write about the moon anymore unless you respect that.<br />
You don’t get to talk to the moon anymore unless you use her correct pronouns.<br />
You don’t get to send men to the moon anymore unless their job is<br />
to bow down before her and apologize for the sins of the earth.<br />
She is waiting for you, pulling at you softly,<br />
telling you to shut the fuck up already please.<br />
Scientists theorize the moon was once a part of the earth<br />
that broke off when another planet struck it.<br />
Eve came from Adam’s rib.<br />
Etc.<br />
Do you believe in the power of not listening<br />
to the inside of your own head?<br />
I believe in the power of you not listening<br />
to the inside of your own head.<br />
This is all upside down.<br />
We should be talking about the ways that blood<br />
is similar to the part of outer space between the earth and the moon<br />
but we’re busy drawing it instead.<br />
The moon is often described as dead, though she is very much alive.<br />
The moon has not known the feeling of not wanting to be dead<br />
for any extended period of time<br />
in all of her existence, but<br />
she is not delicate and she is not weak.<br />
She is constantly moving away from you the only way she can.<br />
She never turns her face from you because of what you might do.<br />
She will outlive everything you know.Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-3308638949310664052022-07-12T07:12:00.003-04:002022-07-12T07:12:50.941-04:00Wife<div class="c-feature-hd" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 9px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #494949; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 1.4px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY</span><span style="color: #494949; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 1.4px; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ada-limon" style="border: 0px; color: black; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 1.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; transition: color 0.25s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">ADA LIMÓN</a></span></div><div class="c-feature-sub c-feature-sub_vast" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="c-feature-bd" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="o-poem isActive" data-view="PoemView" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m not yet comfortable with the word,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">its short clean woosh that sounds like<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">life. At dinner last night my single girls<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">said in admonition, “It’s not wife-approved”<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">about a friend’s upcoming trip. Their<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">eyes rolled up and over and out their<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pretty young heads. Wife, why does it<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">sound like a job? “I need a wife” the famous<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">feminist wrote, “a wife that will keep my<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">clothes clean, ironed, mended, replaced<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">if need be.” A team word that could be made<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">easily into maid. A wife that does, fixes<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">soothes, honors, obeys, Housewife,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">fishwife, bad wife, good wife, what’s<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the word for someone who stares long<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">into the morning, unable to even fix tea<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">some days, the kettle steaming over<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">loud like a train whistle, she who cries<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the mornings, she who tears a hole<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the earth and cannot stop grieving,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the one who wants to love you, but often<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">isn’t good at even that, the one who<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">doesn’t want to be diminished<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">by how much she wants to be yours.</span></div></div></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-57387678478136394532022-06-13T12:54:00.003-04:002022-06-13T12:54:17.554-04:00Sleeping and Waking<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">By Gregg Shapiro</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span></span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My husband recently confessed that when he gets into bed </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> every night, pulls the top-sheet and comforter over his legs </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and torso, locates the perfect pillow groove in which to rest </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> his weary head, he wonders if it will be the last time he ever </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> partakes in such an action. The constantly expanding and </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> evolving inventory of ills, pains, tremors, night sweats, thirst, </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">shortness of breath, urgent bathroom visits, restless legs, dry </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> mouth, vocalizations, and recurring teaching dreams, borders </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> on being Encyclopedia Britannica-esque, capable of overtaking </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> every inch of available shelf-space, entire rooms, personal real </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> estate. I don’t tell my husband that since he’s made me aware </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> of this, that I sleep lighter than before. Listening intently for </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> signs of life, spans between inhalation and exhalation, hints of </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> disruption. I never say I worry about where it is his horizontally </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> sprinting legs are taking him. Towards or away from me. Would </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">never share that every morning, I’m equally surprised that my </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> own eyes still open, although it takes longer for them to focus </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> than it used to. That when I stand and stretch and greet the day, </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I am a bundle of knots and nerves, my heart rattling in my chest </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> like the loose seeds in a maraca, an instrument I will utilize for </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the healing ritual I must perform when the time comes. I was </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> born vigilant, and ready for action when the dire moment arises. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a name="m_-2116981604167066403__Hlk79478301" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><span style="color: black;">Gregg Shapiro is the author of eight books including the poetry collection Fear of Muses (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2022). Recent/forthcoming lit-mag publications include The Penn Review, Exquisite Pandemic, RFD, Gargoyle, Limp Wrist, Mollyhouse, Impossible Archetype, Red Fern Review, Instant Noodles, Dissonance Magazine, and </span></a>POETiCA REViEW, as well as the anthologies Moving Images: Poems Inspired by Film (Before Your Quiet Eyes Publishing, 2021), This Is What America Looks Like (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2021) and Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America (Belt Publishing, 2021). An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBTQ+ and mainstream publications and websites, Shapiro lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his husband Rick and their dog Coco.</span></i></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-59284814922389954322022-04-04T10:42:00.006-04:002022-04-04T10:42:52.368-04:00 Doctor’s Appointment <p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">By Gary Beck</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> </span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The streets are crowded on the way to the doctor’s office,<br />making me even more nervous,<br />since no one is distancing.<br />The nurse takes my temperature,<br />allows me to stay.<br />I look suspiciously at other patients.<br />They are here for sports injuries<br />but I don’t trust anyone<br />in a time of pandemic.<br /><br />Finally I see the doctor<br />who is detached, impersonal.<br />He treats my ankle,<br />gives me a shot<br />of I don’t know what.<br />Says goodbye. Leaves.<br />The nurse bandages me.<br />Says goodbye.<br />I rinse my hands with disinfectant,<br />walk home on crowded streets<br />and hope I didn’t contract<br />a fatal disease.<br /><br /><i>Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn't earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his published books include 32 poetry collections, 13 novels, 3 short story collections, 1 collection of essays and 3 books of plays. Gary lives in New York City.</i></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-17288093582373028552022-02-01T11:33:00.000-05:002022-02-01T11:33:46.440-05:00Beaumont to Detroit: 1943By Langston Hughes<br />
<br />
Looky here, America<br />
What you done done - <br />
Let things drift<br />
Until the riots come.<br />
<br />
Now your policemen<br />
Let your mobs run free.<br />
I reckon you don’t care<br />
Nothing about me.<br />
<br />
You tell me that hitler<br />
Is a mighty bad man.<br />
I guess he took lessons<br />
From the ku klux klan.<br />
<br />
You tell me mussolini’s<br />
Got an evil heart<br />
Well, it mus-a-been in Beaumont<br />
That he had his start -<br />
<br />
Cause everything that hitler<br />
And Mussolini do,<br />
Negroes get the same<br />
Treatment from you.<br />
<br />
You jim crowed me<br />
Before hitler rose to power - <br />
And you’re STILL jim crowing me<br />
Right now, this very hour.<br />
<br />
Yet you say we’re fighting<br />
For democracy<br />
Then why don’t democracy<br />
Include me?<br />
<br />
I ask you this question<br />
Cause I want to know<br />
How long I got to fight<br />
BOTH HITLER – AND JIM CROW<br />
<br />Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-46507856030755855562022-01-25T12:28:00.004-05:002022-01-25T12:28:44.233-05:00 Where do pelicans die? <p>By Sharon Lopez Mooney </p><div><br /></div><div>I’ve never seen a dead pelican on my dock where they fish, </div><div>does a relative or others fly in formation bringing the<br />body out to sea into the maw of deep currents? </div><div><br /></div><div>How do their mates mourn? </div><div>Do neighbor pelicans bring them a catch of the day </div><div>so they don’t have to leave their grieving? </div><div><br /></div><div>How about the energetic wrens? Who tends the chubby little body </div><div>when there’s a death, do friends gather in their favorite ficus tree </div><div>sheltered, to keen for the lost youngster who couldn’t sit still? </div><div><br /></div><div>I, too, have lost friends over these last years, </div><div>not lovers or family, just lovely friends </div><div>and I felt the quick cut of aloneness wound me anew. </div><div><br /></div><div>I cannot go back in time to the first flush </div><div>of that friendship, cannot travel back over miles to </div><div>lay my hand on their door to say good-bye. </div><div><br /></div><div>They pass like those fallen pelicans, those friends, teachers, comrades, </div><div>pass from me like the slowing of my gait, the limits of my eyes </div><div>in an ache of loss that hardly shakes the world. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Sharon Lopez Mooney, poet, is a retired Interfaith Chaplain, who worked in the death and dying field, now lives in Mexico on the Sea of Cortez, and visits family in northern California. Mooney received a 1978 CA Arts Council Grant for a rural poetry series and helped publish a regional arts journal and has produced poetry readings and performances. Mooney’s poems are or will be published in The MacGuffin, The Muddy River Poetry Review, The Avalon Literary Review, Adelaide International Magazine, Galway Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, California Quarterly, Hags on Fire, The Ricochet Review, Roundtable Literary Journal, Visible Magazine, NewVerse News, Evening Street Review, among others.</i></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-73753893979041143212021-11-30T10:44:00.001-05:002021-11-30T10:44:00.198-05:00Two poems by Karen Loeb<b>Glamour in the Age of the Pandemic </b><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>My short hair grows </div><div>longer, and longer still.<br />The ends remember<br />they have cowlicks,<br />curling, some up, some<br />under. There’s no limit</div><div>to their acrobatics.<br /><br /><br /><b>Baking in the Age of the Coronavirus </b><br /><br />The dough had a mind<br />of its own. It was bread<br />all right, but it was going<br />to rise on its own terms.<br />With no yeast to be had<br />each baker, solo at home,<br />had to improvise. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Karen Loeb finished a two-year stint (2018-2020) as writer-in-residence for Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in </span><span style="background-color: white;">Gyroscope Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Hanging Loose, Pinyon</span><span style="background-color: white;">, and other magazines. Her writing has won both the fiction and poetry contests in </span><span style="background-color: white;">Wisconsin People and Ideas.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Poems about the pandemic have appeared in </span><span style="background-color: white;">Quaranzine, Volume One</span><span style="background-color: white;"> and forthcoming in March 2020 in a Bent Paddle Press anthology </span><span style="background-color: white;">Sheltering with Poems</span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span></i></div>
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Page: EditEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-17931646014141167342021-11-29T10:39:00.000-05:002021-11-29T10:39:59.621-05:00AméricaBy Richard Blanco <br />
<br />
I.<br />
Although Tía Miriam boasted she discovered<br />
at least half-a-dozen uses for peanut butter—<br />
topping for guava shells in syrup,<br />
butter substitute for Cuban toast,<br />
hair conditioner and relaxer—<br />
Mamá never knew what to make<br />
of the monthly five-pound jars<br />
handed out by the immigration department<br />
until my friend, Jeff, mentioned jelly.<br />
<br />
II.<br />
There was always pork though,<br />
for every birthday and wedding,<br />
whole ones on Christmas and New Year's Eves,<br />
even on Thanksgiving Day—pork,<br />
fried, broiled or crispy skin roasted—<br />
as well as cauldrons of black beans,<br />
fried plantain chips and <i>yuca con mojito</i>.<br />
These items required a special visit<br />
to Antonio's Mercado on the corner of 8th street<br />
where men in <i>guayaberas</i> stood in senate<br />
blaming Kennedy for everything—"<i>Ese hijo de puta</i>!"<br />
the bile of Cuban coffee and cigar residue<br />
filling the creases of their wrinkled lips;<br />
clinging to one another's lies of lost wealth,<br />
ashamed and empty as hollow trees.<br />
<br />
<b>III.</b><br />
<br />
By seven I had grown suspicious—we were still here.<br />
Overheard conversations about returning<br />
had grown wistful and less frequent.<br />
I spoke English; my parents didn't.<br />
We didn't live in a two story house<br />
with a maid or a wood panel station wagon<br />
nor vacation camping in Colorado.<br />
None of the girls had hair of gold;<br />
none of my brothers or cousins<br />
were named Greg, Peter, or Marcia;<br />
we were not the Brady Bunch.<br />
None of the black and white characters<br />
on Donna Reed or on Dick Van Dyke Show<br />
were named Guadalupe, Lázaro, or Mercedes.<br />
Patty Duke's family wasn't like us either—<br />
they didn't have pork on Thanksgiving,<br />
they ate turkey with cranberry sauce;<br />
they didn't have <i>yuca</i>, they had yams<br />
like the dittos of Pilgrims I colored in class.<br />
<br />
<b>IV.</b><br />
<br />
A week before Thanksgiving<br />
I explained to my <i>abuelita</i><br />
about the Indians and the Mayflower,<br />
how Lincoln set the slaves free;<br />
I explained to my parents about<br />
the purple mountain's majesty,<br />
"one if by land, two if by sea"<br />
the cherry tree, the tea party,<br />
the amber waves of grain,<br />
the "masses yearning to be free"<br />
liberty and justice for all, until<br />
finally they agreed:<br />
this Thanksgiving we would have turkey,<br />
as well as pork.<br />
<br />
<b>V.</b><br />
<br />
<i>Abuelita</i> prepared the poor fowl<br />
as if committing an act of treason,<br />
faking her enthusiasm for my sake.<br />
<i>Mamà</i> set a frozen pumpkin pie in the oven<br />
and prepared candied yams following instructions<br />
I translated from the marshmallow bag.<br />
The table was arrayed with gladiolus,<br />
the plattered turkey loomed at the center<br />
on plastic silver from Woolworths.<br />
Everyone sat in green velvet chairs<br />
we had upholstered with clear vinyl,<br />
except Tío Carlos and Toti, seated<br />
in the folding chairs from the Salvation Army.<br />
I uttered a bilingual blessing<br />
and the turkey was passed around<br />
like a game of Russian Roulette.<br />
"DRY", Tío Berto complained, and proceeded<br />
to drown the lean slices with pork fat drippings<br />
and cranberry jelly—"<i>esa mierda roja</i>," he called it.<br />
Faces fell when <i>Mamá</i> presented her ochre pie—<br />
pumpkin was a home remedy for ulcers, not a dessert.<br />
Tía María made three rounds of Cuban coffee<br />
then <i>Abuelo</i> and Pepe cleared the living room furniture,<br />
put on a Celia Cruz LP and the entire family<br />
began to <i>merengue</i> over the linoleum of our apartment,<br />
sweating rum and coffee until they remembered—<br />
it was 1970 and 46 degrees—<br />
in <i>América</i>.<br />
After repositioning the furniture,<br />
an appropriate darkness filled the room.<br />
Tío Berto was the last to leave.
<br />
<span class="mediatitle" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span>
Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-27062929049564355902021-10-19T12:24:00.001-04:002021-10-19T12:24:00.221-04:00October By Robert Frost <div>O hushed October morning mild,<br>
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;<br>
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,<br>
Should waste them all.<br>
The crows above the forest call;<br>
Tomorrow they may form and go.<br>
O hushed October morning mild,<br>
Begin the hours of this day slow.<br>
Make the day seem to us less brief.<br>
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,<br>
Beguile us in the way you know.<br>
Release one leaf at break of day;<br>
At noon release another leaf;<br>
One from our trees, one far away.<br>
Retard the sun with gentle mist;<br>
Enchant the land with amethyst.<br>
Slow, slow!<br>
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,<br>
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,<br>
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—<br>
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.<br>
</div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-26325644495970507652021-10-18T11:15:00.004-04:002021-10-18T11:15:37.633-04:00 I Will Not Speak Your Name<p>By Marilynn Carter</p><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">You spread</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">around the world</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">like weeds</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">infiltrating every</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> country</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> state</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> city</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> town</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">rich and poor as equals</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">none spared</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Joined all as ONE</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">searching to reclaim</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">normalcy, health, freedom</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Silence fills the air</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">deserted streets</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">occasionally </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">a siren or passing car</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">echoing on the wind</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">You have a name</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">everyone whispers</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">written everywhere</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">I cannot, will not</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">speak your name</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">fuel its power</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Despite your ferociousness</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">responders tirelessly work</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Massive quarantines</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">restrict movement</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">indoors</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">separate, alone</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">we turn inwards</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">self discovery </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">enfolds</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">outdoors</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">social distancing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">virtual hugs</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">becomes new norm</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Masked and gloved</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">embarking on</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">necessary activities</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Elders</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">compromised</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> weak</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> immune</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> systems</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">overwhelmed</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> organs</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">ravaged</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> bodies</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">squeezing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> breath from life</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">those you touch</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Many forced to leave</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> far to soon</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> some without family goodbyes</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">overworked healthcare workers</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> hold hands</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> lend comfort</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> til last breath</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> little pieces of self</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> fall away</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> lost</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Recharging</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> important</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> fill in emotions</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> empty spaces</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> overwhelming</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> loss</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Earth, shuddered, shifting</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> changes needed</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> for way to long</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Appreciation for Mother Nature and ourselves</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> healing now begins</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">We see, feel, smell, know</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">the earth and us</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> together experience transformation</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> our true selves unearthed</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">together</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> better</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> stronger</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Mother Earth adjusts</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> We follow</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Springtime virus dissipating</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">bringing us together again</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">filling us up with</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> Forgiveness</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> Gratitude</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> Compassion</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> Love of Life</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> FOR </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> ourselves</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> each other</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> the world</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> the Earth</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">We are forever recreated and changed!</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><i>Marilynn Carter is a holistic health practitioner, teacher and life coach at Many Paths for Health; co-owner of Maat Publishing; and author of two books, No Fret Cooking, and Experience the Love Light Wisdom of Reiki. Her poetry has appeared in Trouvaille Review; the Merrimac Mic Anthology II: Going with the Floes; Lunation, A Good Fat Anthology of 114 Women Poets; and Klarissa Dreams Redux: The Illuminated Anthology; at the Metheun Arts outdoor poetry installation, Words by Winter Waterfall; Word Play, a virtual exhibit of poetic art and Trouvaille Review. Additionally, she had an essay on dowsing published in Lobster Tails. Her first chapbook of poetry will appear in 2021.</i></span></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-56981598138879116482021-09-04T09:48:00.007-04:002021-09-04T09:48:00.285-04:00Closed Deals<p> By Maed Rill Monte </p><div>Mama splashes cheap cologne all over your work uniform,<br />affirms her reminders and<br />you leave unkissed —<br />some twenty years?<br />Your face is darkened<br />by the rooftop rising<br />caught in the sun,<br />after a burst of foliage,<br />the dead, yellow leaves<br />wedded into nipa roof,<br />spiderwebs and fly carrion.<br />I see the inner child, tense<br />beneath the face mask,<br />the face shield, and<br />the fatherly features.<br />He's upset today's another<br />no-play day. There are<br />mouths to feed,<br />bills to pay,<br />and a world<br />he conceded to.<br /><br />This poem was first published in <i>Too Well Away. </i><br /></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-30030899451637618732021-09-03T09:38:00.001-04:002021-09-07T13:26:26.319-04:00Right to LifeBy Marge Piercy<br />
<br /><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">A woman is not a pear tree</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">thrusting her fruit into mindless fecundity</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">into the world. Even pear trees bear</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">heavily one year and rest and grow the next.</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">An orchard gone wild drops few warm rotting</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">fruit in the grass but the trees stretch</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">high and wiry gifting the birds forty</div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">feet up among inch long thorns</div><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">broken atavistically from the smooth wood. </span><div><br /></div><div>A woman is not a basket you place <br />
your buns in to keep them warm. Not a brood <br />
hen you can slip duck eggs under. <br />
Not the purse holding the coins of your <br />
descendants till you spend them in wars. <br />
Not a bank where your genes gather interest <br />
and interesting mutations in the tainted <br />
rain, any more than you are. <br />
<br />
You plant corn and you harvest <br />
it to eat or sell. You put the lamb <br />
in the pasture to fatten and haul it in to <br />
butcher for chops. You slice the mountain <br />
in two for a road and gouge the high plains <br />
for coal and the waters run muddy for <br />
miles and years. Fish die but you do not <br />
call them yours unless you wished to eat them. <br />
<br />
Now you legislate mineral rights in a woman. <br />
You lay claim to her pastures for grazing, <br />
fields for growing babies like iceberg <br />
lettuce. You value children so dearly <br />
that none ever go hungry, none weep <br />
with no one to tend them when mothers <br />
work, none lack fresh fruit, <br />
none chew lead or cough to death and your <br />
orphanages are empty. Every noon the best <br />
restaurants serve poor children steaks. <br />
At this moment at nine o'clock a partera <br />
is performing a table top abortion on an <br />
unwed mother in Texas who can't get <br />
Medicaid any longer. In five days she will die <br />
of tetanus and her little daughter will cry <br />
and be taken away. Next door a husband <br />
and wife are sticking pins in the son <br />
they did not want. They will explain <br />
for hours how wicked he is, <br />
how he wants discipline. <br />
<br />
We are all born of woman, in the rose <br />
of the womb we suckled our mother's blood <br />
and every baby born has a right to love <br />
like a seedling to sun. Every baby born <br />
unloved, unwanted, is a bill that will come <br />
due in twenty years with interest, an anger <br />
that must find a target, a pain that will <br />
beget pain. A decade downstream a child <br />
screams, a woman falls, a synagogue is torched, <br />
a firing squad is summoned, a button <br />
is pushed and the world burns. <br />
<br />
I will choose what enters me, what becomes <br />
of my flesh. Without choice, no politics, <br />
no ethics lives. I am not your cornfield, <br />
not your uranium mine, not your calf <br />
for fattening, not your cow for milking. <br />
You may not use me as your factory. <br />
Priests and legislators do not hold shares <br />
in my womb or my mind. <br />
This is my body. If I give it to you <br />
I want it back. My life <br />
is a non-negotiable demand.</div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-68522674708544314122021-06-07T16:02:00.003-04:002021-06-07T16:02:23.201-04:00 Three short poems by Carl Palmer: <p><b>August Forecast</b></p><div><div><br /></div><div>Looking like the usual foggy summer morning </div><div>of our Puget Sound town just south of Seattle,</div><div>normally burning off to sunshine before noon,</div><div>however this is smoke from the California fires.</div><div><br /></div><div>Air quality level shows us worst in the world,</div><div>no protection provided by coronavirus masks</div><div>as we pray for a rain to wash them both away.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>To Do</b></div><div><br /></div><div>On my workbench a list of tasks to tackle,</div><div>projects put off since at least last summer,</div><div>hoping to find the time to do them this year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pandemic mandate means I must stay home</div><div>these past six months of days filled with time,</div><div>plenty of time, yet my jobs remain undone.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>normalcy in chaos</b></div><div><br /></div><div>hearing her harping </div><div>on all that’s changed</div><div>since this virus struck</div><div>makes me appreciate</div><div>that she has not. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>Carl “Papa” Palmer of Old Mill Road in Ridgeway, Virginia, lives in University Place, Washington. </i><i style="font-size: 12pt;">He is retired from the military and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enjoying life as “Papa” </i><i style="font-size: 12pt;">to his grand descendants and being a Franciscan Hospice volunteer. </i></p></div><div><br /></div></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-28992854919636732522021-05-21T17:07:00.000-04:002021-05-21T17:07:15.137-04:00Good Bones<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>
</strong>By Maggie Smith</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
</div>
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine<br />
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,<br />
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways<br />
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least<br />
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative<br />
estimate, though I keep this from my children.<br />
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.<br />
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,<br />
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world<br />
is at least half terrible, and for every kind<br />
stranger, there is one who would break you,<br />
though I keep this from my children. I am trying<br />
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,<br />
walking you through a real s---hole, chirps on<br />
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,<br />
right? You could make this place beautifulEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-785321166412290694.post-73225257900366748782021-05-12T15:38:00.005-04:002021-05-12T15:38:29.292-04:00Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People are Dying <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By Noor Hindi </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Colonizers write about flowers.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">seconds before becoming daisies.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I want to be like those poets who care about the moon.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s so beautiful, the moon.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">They’re so beautiful, the flowers.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I pick flowers for my dead father when I’m sad.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">He watches Al Jazeera all day.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wish Jessica would stop texting me<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Happy Ramadan</em>.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Metaphors about death are for poets who think ghosts care about sound.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I die, I promise to haunt you forever.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-indent: -1em;">One day, I’ll write about the flowers like we own them.</span> </span></div>Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695149244974199579noreply@blogger.com0