To celebrate National Poetry Month, we are happy to present Poetry Daily’s April Celebration: 30Presses/30Poets (#ArmchairBookFair21). Please join us for new poetry from the presses that sustain us. We thank you for reading and hope you will consider supporting poets and poetry this month, and every month. Please be well.
When someone’s son becomes a meat offering on our block, they hire one of us to scrub the blood away — can understand that
but they’ve been scrubbing us away painting over bronzed cherubs
even the tomatoes Italians planted before they turned white uprooted , their coagulated roses trimmed into a respectable fence
as if no thing happened here. They get to twenty-first century homestead, pilgrim , pogrom, genocide
our dead are ghosts
though we were ghosts to them before dying
they will say nothing to their children and when they are petulantly rebellious, parents will say nothing of note happened here before you insist never knew what makes prime rare
The award recognizes Ross Gay's latest book, Be Holding: A Poem, an homage to legendary basketball player, Julius Erving. "Gay traces Dr. J’s prowess from African mythology to the Middle Passage to pickup games, hip-hop, police violence and the 1980 NBA Finals, where the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the 76ers despite Erving’s heroics."
No paywalls. No subscription fees. Just one new poem a day, every day of the year. Celebrate the poetry lovers in your life with a donation to Poetry Daily during National Poetry Month.
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality. We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world. Black Lives Matter.
