Signature
Sarah Kersey
Before there was a word for me, or you,
my ancestors, under a gibbous moon,
bowed their heads to the ground,

read the Bible their masters misread.

In His fellow feeling,
God flooded them with His search light.
It was arresting.

All praise!

Book is proof.
Book is stitched fist
which tears threads
to point a
finger.

I possess a startling insignificance.

When I speak, my words are not big,
but infinitesimal testimony.

Book has generous hands.
It cups my face and says,
You've fastened a belt
around your tongue.
Larcenize this language.


I part my lips like the Red Sea.
from the book RESIDENCE TIME / Newfound
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"After Long Hiatus, Pittsburgh's Venerable Poetry Forum Returns"

"The Forum is also resuming its programming in schools. Visiting poets will conduct workshops with students; Hayes, for instance, is booked to visit Wilmerding’s Westinghouse Arts Academy. And Grefenstette said the group plans to deploy local poets to do about 30 programs in area high schools and libraries.....The local poetry community is greeting the Forum’s return greeted enthusiastically."

via 90.5 WESA
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Cover of Philip Metres' book, Fugitive/Refuge
What Sparks Poetry: Philip Metres on"Qasida for Abdel Wahab Yousif"

"The qasida begins with human longing. The moderns didn’t invent it! It was in the human heart. This is the nasīb, which means 'fate,' the poet is in a nostalgic mood. Sometimes, pursuing the beloved, the poet will come upon the remains of a camp, the beloved’s caravan, causing a consideration of what has passed. If it begins with longing and its endless distances (thanks, Robert Hass), it doesn’t stay there, but rather moves into the trouble of the world." 
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