“It took me a while to understand that a poet isn’t defined by complex metaphors or the way they present their work…a poet is only defined as and by the person whose name and essence stamp those stanzas and similes. So in short, don’t let what you think hold you back. Let what you know push you forward.” — Anjalequa Birkett
Shortly after COVID-19's arrival in our state, Mass Poetry put out a call for poems of this moment and we were stunned by the overwhelming response. In a way, these were poems of witness, asking you to pay attention to what was happening in the world during...
Permabeauty in the Boston Athenæum by Andie Sheridan In ash and thornin heightful stacks and stairsa librarianstuck through with a pencil--in her hair a pencilstuck through her hair--clutch-touches through the genealogy of not touching orbegrudging;Exposed red...
Portuguese Man-of-War Angelo Mao is not a real creature, being madefrom a collusion of organismsunder one sail. Nevertheless, its tentacles can reachthree times a grown man’s height,dangling so far that one cannot seetheir ends, because sea-water, by that depth,...
“People say (poets say) they write poems because they have to. It’s not a choice. Poetry is how they are able to move through the world. Poetry helps me get out from under the farce of the world. It helps me get out from under the weight of my existence, and my complicity in the cycle.” — AR Dugan
“A foot / of deep-caked snow / still on the driveway, / and February’s blank stare / through our darkening window. / Suddenly, a lone ladybug / flaunts her colors / on the pane.” — Ronald W. Pies
The Idea of Eleanor William Tilleczek Hail, corner-rounder and surpriseUnder the table! We are your luck,You ours. We await even your hiccups:There is nothing to prove. Every radiantLove is in your face, now forming atIts break-neck pace each day. We waitTo hail you,...
“My hope is that this project inspires other writers and artists, especially BIPOC folks, queer people, disabled people, and others who have been marginalized in the literary and art communities, to develop new ways of releasing work into the world. There is a myriad of ways we can dream up to engage with capitalism differently and to create and deepen community. That’s what I’m most excited about.”
“If landscape once was / sacramental, then / let me dig in mud / and dust, smear its mark / across my brow, wash / my feet in moving / waters when I step / into its river, / and let me never / find the other side.”
“You hold type in your hands, and that type is energy, captured. Energy that was input to make type can sit waiting in cases for decades, and be used over and over with no additional energy input needed.”
Jule Shulman's "Wilding" & Holly Guran's "Lifework" WildingJulie Shulman All structures are unstablenotre dame itself will burnyour stubborn body will faileach thing grown fresh and newis already fading and will fall awaybut today I saw a shock of wild...
“my love explains / that they are rejects, deemed unworthy / of grocery stores & thrown into exile. / we gather our outcasts to make a meal.” — Mckendy Fils-Aimé
What is your writing process like?
Mariya Deykute: Sporadic and flexible. I have two young children, and a full-time job, so writing happens around that. Sometimes it’s a half hour in the morning, sometimes fifteen minutes on the playground, sometimes in whatsapp messages with myself on my phone. There are times when I think it makes for the best kind of writing — free from the doubt and hesitation that a freer schedule used to bring, and sometimes I fall into a pit of despair that leaves me wondering if I am losing the chance to write the great American novel because I’m not on a desert island with a typewriter. Normal stuff. Mostly, though, when the going is good, I find that my writing process is often something like a secret affair or obsession, something I waltz with on time stolen from my regular work; something I pursue with feverish impatience when the rest of the house is asleep.
Jennifer Houle's "The Pain of Others" & Tim Mayo's "The Ladder" The Pain of OthersJennifer Houle Hell is just another curse. It is shallow as a puddle. Old as the cosmos. Muttered and gone. Customary.Hellhole, hellbent, hellenic, to hell with the...
“now / I am the steaming lavender tea / I gift myself / when the bad news refuses to yield” — Marissa Carty
“I prefer clumsy preservation of everything to no preservation at all, and once I’m distant enough to gain perspective, I can see what I was trying to do in that clumsy mess.” — Jae Kim
American Robin, 2020 Jennifer Markell I saw the fledgling lying on the stepby the weekly Gazette, ran insidefor a scarf or handkerchief, some soft thingto carry the bird to safety, as ifone dark eye,open still, held the world’s hope. As I kneeled at the bird’s...
“Imagine a map pinned with the locations of what you love–
people or places or animals.” — Melanie Braverman
Walking the Julius Lester Path Jane Yolen It’s been a whilesince I have walkedthe old forest paths,where tree rootscurl like traplinesand the only resting spotsare downed logs.A river ran pastfaster than I could walk.A hidden jackhammerof a bird gave usmarching...
“This book began with an intense desire to counter the witch kitsch narratives of Salem, MA, but as I wrote those poems my vision for the book evolved and became more complicated. I discovered that the book wanted/needed to connect that history with contemporary events that were both personal and political.”
“Full turnip moon backlighting the bar, / folks tripping across the lath of the dance floor, / not involved in the search for sequence / or god.” — Howie Faerstein