Can it really be Thursday already? Time for Thursday poem share!
First up I’d actually like to link to Connotation Press where I read some fabulous poems this week. I’m hoping to send them some of my work in the near future.
Since I’ve been pounding away at the 2nd full length manuscript, I decided today would be a good day to post one of the poems from the potential collection. Last night I got through all 78 poems. Dropped 2 and about 6 are kind of shaky because they don’t transition well. They are poems I like but I’m just not sure if they fit. I’m typing up the new order this morning and then perhaps tomorrow I’ll try another read through, maybe backwards this time, to try and place the poems again. Each time I do this it shapes itself a bit more.
The first poem up is one that appeared in Wild Goose Poetry Review previously. I actually had a chapbook of Fat Girl poems that I sent around for over a year. It was actually a finalist at least once in a contest but I’m kind of glad it didn’t get picked up now since I am weaving it into the 2nd manuscript.
Fat Girl: The Superhero
You won’t be Wonder Woman
because you wouldn’t wear
that outfit. Although, when
you were five, and not fat
you had those red boots
that you swore made you run faster.
Your least favorite is Super Girl,
the girl, the skirt, how close the word
Super is to Supper and how you’d fall
out of the sky targeting
the first red Wendy’s sign.
Maybe you could be the awkward/
obscure Gigantic Girl whose gift
was growing tall, not out you notice,
but up. She was hefty, having
strength and size like a man.
Now for my 2nd poem I am having a much harder time figuring out what to post. I actually haven’t been writing a whole lot of new material while I have been working on the 2nd manuscript. A few things here and there but mainly revision and then the flash fiction pieces I have been writing., which are still a surprise. I think I’ll post one of the poems I was having trouble placing in the manuscript. The form isn’t quite right because the poem actually spreads out a bit across the page but wondering if this is one I should consider retiring. The manuscript has a wide variety of poems that deal with gender, mythology, a child’s wonder at things like bats and of course metaphorical zombies.
Echolocation
My arm is stiff
My wrist bends back
and my palm
faces what I hope is a wall
Fumbling
I am
a bat given sight
What would he do
with a kaleidoscope
of color
I know I startle
as the floor settles
I turn my wings
when ice drops
in the freezer
I reach
for a door
So you guys know the drill right? Link to your own poems in comments or post your own. Leave comments about the work I post here or questions etc. Let’s get out there and share some poetry!
Oh and quick last note, I have a review of a poetry book and an interview with a poet up at Poet’s Quarterly