Readers Place: Celebrating National Poetry Month
APRIL 2019
April is the month in which we celebrate the words and work of poets. Among our new titles is one by Maplewood poet Sondra Gash.
See the instinct for painting is the instinct for power
Women don’t
choose work over love
but it’s not the same for men
See all men are in love with themselves
Like Diego & your father
& even an artist
will leave his wife behind
but he can’t if she runs harder
if she’s both hunter & sacrifice
…It takes a romantic to leave a city: I understand this now. Those cardboard boxes, how they opened faithfully for you, little brown hearts, how they carried everything you would ask of them.
Twenty-ninth Year
Alyan, Hala. “The Socratic method.” The twenty-ninth year, 2018.
as a toddler my brother learns to answer a bricklayer uncle:
“what ladies like” “suga suga”
“what mens like” “hugs”
- a smeared sweet on his cheek in the parenthesis of a grin
Indecency
Reed, Justin Phillip. “The Leak in This Old Building.” Indecency, 2018.
My father keeps blooming
like the tulips saluting in the grass.
One of a dying breed: leftists, militant yet benign,
still high on making this a better world.
This is America. A sweep of his hand-
And it’s better than a picture show.
Suit and dress
Gash, Sondra. “On a Bench in Union Square in April.” Suit and Dress, 2019.
When I was brave, I pushed my feet into the pedals
And these pushed me into the world I wanted to be in.
I was high and above all the other birds.
The birds flew in harlequins around me.
Loves You
Sarah Gambito, Sarah. “Ancestor.” Loves You, 2019.
Compiled by Ina Rimpau