Taneum Bambrick
We are in the moment before we decide,
for the first time, to have sex.
We fill our mouths with salami and wine.
I am careful, peeling wax paper off glazed sponge cake . . .
from the journal
The Nation
What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature in which we invite poets to explore experiences and ideas that spark new poems.
In Books We’ve Loved, we asked our editorial board members and select guest editors to reflect on a book that has been particularly meaningful to them in the last year, with the intention of creating a list of book recommendations for our valued readers.
- September 27, 2021
Ellen Bryant Voigt
My grandfather killed a mule with a hammer,
or maybe with a plank, or a stick, maybe
it was a horse—the story varied
in the telling. If he was planting corn
when it happened, it was a mule, and he was plowing
the upper slope, west of the house, his overalls
stiff to the knees with red dirt, the lines
draped behind his neck.
- September 26, 2021
Derek Sheffield
That bright of the blue sky variety
raising every racket of mower
and blower, backhoe and whacker. . .
- September 25, 2021
Atsuro Riley
You could loop a rope there Nearabout the bicep
Whap you up a wide horsehead knot to grip. To ride good Rid fear Let's
not feature no blackflow flowin' down below.
- September 24, 2021
Peter Jay Shippy
Because the navigator didn't understand that the crease in the map depicted a crease in the sea, the ship had to weigh anchor.
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