Bottomfeeder

Raye Hendrix
I still  don’t know whose body I belong to       mine or the ones who’ve been  inside it
from the book What Good Is Heaven / Texas Review Press

What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature in which we invite poets to explore experiences and ideas that spark new poems. 

In our current series, Object Lessons, we’re thinking about the relationship between the experienced and imagined world. We have asked our editors and invited poets to present one of their own poems in combination with the object that inspired it, and to meditate on the magical journey from object to poem. 
 
Each essay is accompanied by a writing prompt which we hope you will find useful in your own writing practice or in the classroom.
Luisa A. Igloria on "Caulbearer"
Photo: Luisa A. Igloria
Luisa A. Igloria
we don’t know how long the world can hold                  such specimens of tenderness, how far the glacial drifts can ferry such tombs
Jan Beatty
It would be years until I knew her, knew that part of me as I searched second-hand stores for men's clothing/ men's size 7 shoes, looking for the boy/man in me. I don't believe in salvation, but look at her body stripping:
Trace Howard DePass

(t)his was the one answer i found. i forget to drink water. another omnitemporal question, this is the one that brought me to answer, how can i be black and wanting to be referred to & not mention my sister's, my mother's, my theydie's, my homies deaths in particular?

Sophie Cabot Black
You also remain. The unlost birds come back To crown the trees and do not wonder How each branch bursts into again
Kaycee Hill
a box stood in the nucleus of the room, inside smelt like pencil shavings, lilies. Stay here forever, the Devil said -

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