“Dear child of the near future, / Here’s my permission. Take it. It’s alright to replace sirens / with the light shot through them. / All the old gray gods have fallen / in a field of decapitated corn stalks. / I’m trying to tell you that the world is beautiful.” — Erica Charis-Molling
The Hard Work of Hope
Myles Taylor’s “Poem with only a little bit of sacrilege” and Marie Ungar’s “Hypochondria”
poem with only a little bit of sacrilegeMyles Taylor I wanna be like the heroes in the moviesbut every time I drop something I instinctivelyjump out of the way / I don’t know how to re-wireself-preservation but without it I might not survivelong enough to be in the...
Amy M. Clark’s “Now Approaching Porter Square” and Amanda Hope’s “Prayer After”
Now Approaching Porter SquareAmy M. Clark On the Kendall Station platform,I leave a dollar for the young womanplaying an accordion while stomping one footharnessed to a pulley that sets to dancingher dressed-to-match marionette doublestrung inside a...
J.D Debris’ “[New thorns, 2020]” and Ezana Demissie’s “the US is on the brink of war and i’ve just taken a chem test”
[new thorns, 2020]JD Debris from CHALINO SÁNCHEZ: A SEQUENCE Pull the thorns from this borderline‘til barbed wire runs smooth against a palm,‘til coils of concertinafold back inside the accordion with a sigh. Write the crimestory of this borderline & paper-planeit...
Matt Miller’s “Thirteen” and Sunayana Kachroo’s “Oh, my brown boy”
“When I was your age the girl I loved dumped me the night a ball went through Buckner’s legs and the Sox would lose the Series and she kissed Dave. Is a broken heart still a hurt all over the skin?” — Matt Miller
Anna V.Q. Ross’s “After All” & D. Dina Friedman’s “Amen”
Anna V.Q. Ross' "After All" & D. Dina Friedman's "Amen" After AllAnna V.Q. RossEven when the garlic crop is good,something else is always dying—the peas withering in the afternoon we hopedfor rain instead of watering, the tomatoesover-shaded. It should teach us...
Disability Justice Folio
For the last two years, Mass Poetry has been bringing you the “Hard Work of Hope,” a series of poems from members of our community that tell the story of the pandemic and all its ripple effects in our lives. But we cannot tell the full story without hearing from...
Grace Mattern’s “An American Elegy”
An American ElegyGrace Mattern We go back to not dying,wherever we fall is the beginning —an allée of elms planted to createa lace of sunlight and shadow.What separates branches from windin designing their dance? Nothing.We carry our own seasons wonderingwhen we will...
Elisa Rowe’s “Grounding Lavender”
Grounding Lavender Elisa Rowe Wrap a scarf likekneading dough, poola little lavender to grazemy cheek.My body, a slippingfinger on a piano. Mybody, trembling into tune.I want to be soft likebelonging. I wantmy neurons to fire acountry into memory.Routine is like a...
Carmen Barefield’s “I dream of a house I’ll never have” & Alex Baskin’s “In Search of Ordinary Things”
I dream of a house I’ll never haveCarmen Barefield maybe a little bungalow with a big backyardand a fig tree’s shadow painting the grassits heavy limbs bowing from all its fruitand on move in day, I’ll leave the unpackingto curl up beneath it just because I can the...
Anthony Febo’s “notes on: acts of service”
notes on: acts of service by Anthony Febo and so i propose to you to ponder thisin all the attire you may dress Love in - a night by fire or a stroll under starlight or the pulse of the city - may you not overlook the way “everyday small acts”...
Robert Knox’s “What the Earth is Like” and Roselyn Kubek’s “Necessity”
What the Earth Is Like By Robert Knox “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart” – Rilke, The Songs of Orpheus, No. 21 The earth is like a younger brother,who follows his sun around, copying his ways, rising from the...
Anjalequa Birkett’s “22:17 p.m. // 23:22 p.m.”
“i swear i could see the sun start to rise in paris, / creeping in on the tip of the eiffel tower and as my back falls onto sinking asphalt; / i dream of living with a lover in constant beloved.” — Anjalequa Birkett
The Hard Work of Witness Poetry Folio
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...
Andie Sheridan’s “Permabeauty in the Boston Athenæum”
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...
Angelo Mao’s “The Portuguese Man-of-War” and Frannie Lindsay’s “The Rabbits of Upland Road”
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,...
Ronald W. Pies’ “Our Lady of the Cyclamen”
“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
William Tilleczek’s “The Idea of Eleanor” and Carolyn Cushing’s “Messenger”
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,...
Brian Simoneau’s “Prayer for Something Like a Home”
“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.”
Jule Shulman’s “Wilding” & Holly Guran’s “Lifework”
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...
Mckendy Fils-Aimé’s “sipèstisyon”
“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