8/21/2020 - Poetry Schmoetry
TGIF, huh!
I had no big inspiration for recommendations this week, so tonight is poetry night. I’ll share with you a few poems that I’ve carried around with me in various digital pockets for months or years. I hope they make you feel things, which I believe is the entire point of poetry in the first place.
“Twelve Libraries” and “The Opposite Game”
I’ve had these both bookmarked since I originally saw them (Nov 2018 and March 2019) and I’m literally just now finding out they were both written as class projects facilitated by the same teacher. These are both unfortunately timely over and over and over again. The opposite of a gun is wherever you point it.
Good Bones
Musings on what it’s like to be a realtor of this world, trying to sell it to the next generation. This place could be beautiful, right?
Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
This poem was written in 2008, and not in 2020 quarantine as it would seem. When I get antsy and cooped up in my house and mind these days, I think of this poem and its prescient suggestions. Be thankful that you are here.
Ina Garten
This one is an accidental poem, but so many things are! Mary has captured multiple deep and mundane human experiences in this beautiful email. It would take me an hour and a half to two hours to get to Trader Joe’s on I-4 which has been undergoing construction since 2001 with no end in sight and is considered the most dangerous highway in the United States. I avoid this road.
Only Poets Should Write Verse
Here’s a quick word of warning to everyone who’s rushing to write their own coronavirus poetry right now:
If you’re in the mood for more poetry after this, or if you prefer to watch poems performed out loud rather than written down, the extra credit this week is a handful of performances by Sarah Kay, the poet whose work I know the best:
A poem about mothers and daughters
(Full disclosure I included these just to make my sister cry)
Wow it’s almost midnight and I specifically said TGIF up there, so I have to hit send!!!! The newsletter will be taking a pause next week while I abscond to the wilderness! See you when I return, flush with the glow of a woman who hasn’t checked twitter in multiple days.
xoxo
Ali