#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 15:
“I Refuse to Be Intimidated By Time” by Erika Meitner
originally published in @newyorker.com
(This got deleted twice so I’m posting so I don’t lose it and I’ll come back to comment — feel free to start w/o me!)
newyorkermag.visitlink.me/VxaHws
I’d like to highlight @catherinebarnett.bsky.social today for #LiftToTheSky — read this fabulous poem, “Envoy” and join in our conversation #ContemporaryPoetryChat
Poem Envoy by Catherine Barnett
Hi Kristin, I’ll leave notes as I’m off shortly…
~ Title conveys a lot about the mindset of the speaker
~Veins in the wrist also does.
~Overlaying Maslow works so well, the speaker trying to figure out their place
~Transcendence, wow
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 14
The best way to figure out what we like is to read our past issues.
Another good way to find out what @kristinwrites.bsky.social likes (and therefore may accept) to s to check out her #ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 14:
“Envoy” by Catherine Barnett ( @catherinebarnett.bsky.social ?)
I LOVE THIS POEM. It’s the style of poem I love so much and can’t quite write. The profound mixed with the everyday.
originally published in American Poetry Review
#Poetry
www.aprweb.org/poems/envoy
The repetitive use of the word lithe in this poem is fascinating in its intentionality. The piece is lyrical, the word sounds perfectly placed to play off each other but still, at the same time, very plain language, accessible, approachable.
Love it!
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 13:
“Folk Song” by Diane Seuss @dseuss.bsky.social
“You know what? I want to be rich and lithe.
Rich, with a lyric gift and a song
like a white-throated sparrow. I am vulture-heavy.”
from Modern Poetry (Graywolf, 2024) (on my #TBR!)
poets.org/poem/folk-song
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 12:
“Pastoral” by Canese Jarboe
Found at Just Buffalo Literary Center
Noteworthy to me is the atypical enjambment throughout. Interesting.
www.justbuffalo.org/canese-jarbo...
I find the repeated stanzas about the nephew and his evolution of what he wants to be when he grows up to be particularly striking- alive.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
The site has a recording so you can hear the piece read aloud in Jada Renée’s own voice, which is great for accessibility and lends a greater power to the words.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to glimpse a very real world that I do not live in, would not otherwise see.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 11:
“Drill” by Jada Renee Allen
originally published in Poem-A-Day
This one is a statement about police/state violence, particularly against people of color.
poets.org/poem/drill
And also this one, Ich Dien, written by and shared with me today by @1dgrn.bsky.social, an @epistemiclit.bsky.social contributor:
www.thepierian.org#1239
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
Also, I’m noticing I tend to enjoy poetry that sort of goes on a mid-story tangent, because that’s how my brain operates.
This one I published in @epistemiclit.bsky.social comes to mind:
epistemiclit.com/past-issues/...
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
I’m a word-nerd so etymology and a play on words (selfish… sell fish) together? I’m in love.
I also enjoy the sprinkling of historical events tho it really makes me wonder what the original intended events were…
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 10:
“Seasteading: Entrepreneurial Opportunities” by Tana Jean Welch
from Parachutes Descending (University of Pittsburgh 2024)
I’m chatting with myself these days but nonetheless I persist! And I really like this one!
training.poems.com/poem/seastea...
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 9:
“Spring and All” by Sylvio Fraga
originally published in Copenhagen
I don’t have much to say about this one except: as a parent of four, I can 100% see this actually having happened 😆
cpnhgnlit.com/Sylvio-Fraga
I like how the images build, how the piece of the eaves in the final picture is used in each image. I don’t get the words, they don’t feel cohesive to me.
I admire the creative vision of hybrid artists, it’s not something my mind naturally takes to.
What do you think?
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 8:
“graphic poetry” by Tyler Barton
originally published in December
This is a hybrid piece inspired by (about?) the author’s experience with housing insecurity.
decembermag.org/featured-con...
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 7:
“At the Rainbow Cattle Company” by Bruce Snider
originally published in Poetry
@poetryfoundation.bsky.social
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
There’s no doubt this piece has a beautiful lyricism that belies its subject matter — but dare I ignite the debate: is it a poem?
I love a good prose poem but this feels more prose than poem to me, until the last three stanzas — which are pure, hard hitting poetry.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 6:
“Images from the War” by Doha Kahlout, trans. Yasmine Seale
originally published in @yalereview.bsky.social
yalereview.org/article/doha...
I don’t claim to grasp the fullness of this poem, and it took some rereading before I got to where I am. I like it — I LOVE the ending, which is what made me go back and read it again, to piece it together in my mind in light of the ending.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 5:
“Concerning Ceremonies” by Rosanna Warren
originally published in The Commonweal
This one wrestles with religion, why we hold on to some ceremonies and not others. Timely, I think -
www.commonwealmagazine.org/poem-concern...
No #ContemporaryPoetryChat today bc I don’t have the spoons.
Be back tomorrow!
Sometimes I feel that way—that there are no words to describe something—and I usually end up concluding I must just not be a very good poet.
But sometimes, just maybe… the words are gone.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
That’s the essence of this poem, which has too many gorgeous, profound lines to quote —
if even the poets can’t find words for whatever is happening, all that’s left are tears.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
I don’t usually love poems about poems, or poetry, or poets, and this one is a bit long for my preferences.
That said — wow!
What does one do when things are so bad there are no words? Perhaps cry.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
#ContemporaryPoetryChat Day 4:
“The Poets Awoke” by m. nourbeSe philip
originally published in Yale Review
This is the last poem selected by multiple contemporary poets as best of the year.
yalereview.org/article/m-no...
“Is the idea that it is the experience of beauty,
Not rules, not fear of consequences
Or reverence for authority, that informs
Our moral sense.”
This is a big claim, worth pondering.
What do you think?
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
This poem is masterful. Captures a moment in time — a beautiful moment!—and goes on to explore the idea of beauty and its relationship to morality, with some rough turns to describing the worst of humankind.
#ContemporaryPoetryChat
