A sternocleidomastoid is a muscle we humans have in our necks. Most humans have two, and the pair of them run diagonally down from the outside of our necks toward our sternums. I only have one as I lost the other in a surgery called a modified radical neck dissection. All living things lose stuff, and a sternocleidomastoid is one thing I lost. This poem wonders how much we can lose and still be ourselves. This poem supposes we need each other to survive all the loses, and this poem wonders who we need and why. I think the wires and the crows in the poem are a little bit strange, but I left them there because we are connected in such complicated ways, and I think crows are ominous creatures, perching on our complications, waiting for us to fall further to pieces. May we each yet hold it together.
Lisa Allen Ortiz on "Sternocleidomastoid" |
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"She Has Dreamt Again of Water by Stephanie Niu"
"Niu’s poems are arias of love that present a powerful voice that reverberates through this collection. Niu presents the reader with an intricate presentation of the bonds of family and the slow, yet accelerating demise of the natural world. It the unmistakable love for both that makes this collection shine."
via FULL HOUSE LITERARY |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Olivia E. Sears on Ardengo Soffici's "Rainbow"
"It was striking to me that Soffici wrote this poem full of beauty and tenderness, while he was (simultaneously) preparing for war....Soffici had written years before about existential dread and about his efforts to combat the void: 'Art for me is the only way to escape the concept of nothingness that otherwise haunts and terrifies me.' In these poems, he filled that void with color, shape, sound, and alchemical transformation." |
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Apply to the Bread Loaf Translators' Conference
June 2 to 8, 2023
Join our award-winning faculty in the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains for a week of introductory and advanced workshops along with an inspiring schedule of lectures, classes, and readings. Financial aid is available. Rolling admissions through February 15th. Apply now |
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