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.
- October 14, 2024
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
- October 13, 2024
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:
- October 12, 2024
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?
- October 11, 2024
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
- October 10, 2024
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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