Reader's Place: April 1, 2021
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Nikki Giovanni, and singers Lana Del Ray and Halsey all have new poetry collections out. The following authors are less well known, but ones to look out for.
Finna
finna comes from the southern phrase fixing to
like I come from my southern grandmothers & finna
is this word that reminds me about everything next.
even when i’ve been a broken boy i know i’m fixing to
get fixed. i’m finna be better. every dream i have is a finna
away from achievement. each new love i uncover is a finna
i unfold. every challenge i choose to meet & not let defeat me is a finna
i fight for.
-Nate Marshall
Finna: Poems, by Nate Marshall (Library Catalog)
awake
……..
if the devil hadn’t
pushed you into a corner
and forced you to break its neck
how would you have known
you were this strong
-Rupi Kaur
Home Body, by Rupi Kaur (Library Catalog)
Lesson in Fire
My father built a good fire
He taught me to tend the fire
How to make it stand
So it could breathe
And how the flames create
Coals that turn into faces
Or eyes
Or fish swimming
Out of flames
Into gray
Rivers of ash
And how the eyes
And faces look out
At us
Burn up for us
To heat the air
That we breathe
And so into us
We swallow
All the shapes
Created in a well-tended fire
-Linda Noel
When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through. A Norton anthology of Native Nations poetry , edited by Jo Harjo (Library Catalog)
Lunar Eclipse
August 16, 1989
Last night I watched the moon go out
become a dark opalescent glow
I could not believe what was happening
even as I saw the change in light.
The first time I met you
we sat up all night reading
each other’s poems morning hopes
followed us down Cole Street
You stretch across our best years
like a living wire
between heaven and hell
at war Being sisters
wasn’t always easy
but it was never dull
I can’t believe you are gone
out of my life
So you are not.
-Audre Lorde
African American poetry: 250 years of struggle & song, edited by Kevin Young (Library Catalog)
We lived happily during the war
And when they bombed other people’s houses, we
protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not
enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America
was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house –
I took a chair outside and watched the sun.
In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money
in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)
lived happily during the war.
-Ilya Kaminsky
Deaf republic: poems, by Ilya Kaminsky. (Library Catalog)
Compiled by Ina Rimpau