A poem a day by a different poet for National Poetry (Writing) Month, a tradition inspired by poet Maureen Thorson.
Risa Denenberg Of Countless Deaths Of countless deaths today, I’ve witnessed three. To witness any death is to feel desperately alive. To discern that one’s own body lingers at the border between here and not here. To experience the shock wave of foreboding. To slip into a moment of groundless grace. And if you ask, … [Read more…]
Darius Stewart “Tests Have Proven This Is Not a False Positive” in this diagnosis we don’t name names he is he & she is she period do not disturb the status quo he is a person of color so is she we all are some shade of off-white if not it’s best not to … [Read more…]
Sam Avrett To the death Greeks and Trojans fought to the death. Vicious nasty battles on the Aegean, Broken bones, bloody wounds, shouts of pain. Those wars are remembered in smooth white marble. Simple stories with a nice clean arc. Memory protects us, clears the ugliness, trims the thorns of trauma. What it felt like … [Read more…]
Roger Ian Rosen Gary, I Don’t Remember He was so thin. No, skinny. Too skinny. Funny. And wonderful in a way that I didn’t understand That I understood. Then he was gone. Replaced by a fat guy. They were very different. But then not. I have written his death with Wisps of cancerred glitter. Disco … [Read more…]
Laura Secord As Far as Heart Goes (V) When she resurrects to our awe, and they pronounce her fit to leave, she picks Jamal up from school, grouts tile, paints the hall, and teaches him to read. Under the starry ceiling she stenciled, she tells him, God, who made the world, promised she’d live till … [Read more…]
Kristina England Painting the Early 1980s Lesions emerge into stained tailspin. Red drowns art pieces within. Hogwash men blame homosexuals, scrawl on billboards, radio transmit own perpetual lies into line-blurred facts. Society trusts, gets sick, abstracted disease progresses into collateral chaos epidemic. Hogwash men realize own mess, take action. No apologies given. Leave canvas-cracked skin. … [Read more…]
James Casey Pills and Bills Pills and bills, currency for sanity. ECT and cups of tea Electro-Darjeeling if you please Tantrums of thumping and vibrating My sister twirls her hair with OCD abandon; When can I throw her switch? Digital pixel-pusher by trade My oeuvre exists in electric circuits Twisted representations that wind up lining … [Read more…]
Scott Chalupa Big Roy How many queens had to help you overturn and burn that cop cruiser on the second day of riots? I assumed you just made it up, and so I never thought to ask any of those nights when you held court in the receiving room at Houston’s Pacifica affiliate. The show … [Read more…]
Michael Mackin O’Mara Dreams in Black & White Ton souvenir en moi luit comme un ostensoir! — Charles Baudelaire My friend, You are dying. Not like the rest of us who think we are dying every day. Each day the warden walks You through a darkened hall. Each evening, in stark shadow, the reverend father … [Read more…]
Here’s what you get when you Google “national poetry month hiv aids 2017” Missing: hiv aids That’s right. HIV and AIDS are literally, virtually, digitally, really and truly missing from the celebrations of poetry going on this National Poetry Month 2017. I’ve been wondering what Indolent Books and our fiscal parent, Indolent Arts Foundation, Inc., … [Read more…]