There's a boy who stands where the door should be.
He seems so certain, posing with his secrets intact,
pulling us forward by what we cannot say.

Do we trust him? There's no mark of God or country
on him, no signs of madness in the width
and whiteness of his eyes. But the hair self-yanked

into its angular, public shape betrays him
as one who has nothing to do with the body
he's standing in. How would a doctor classify

this work of not knowing, that it's impossible
or temporary or just in our heads?
What would anyone who can speak say

to those who were born in the trees,
who can detect a squall in the open distant sea,
open as it is to you, to me.
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Cover of Elizabeth Bradfield's book, Toward Antartica
"The Cold Calms Even My Jittery Heart"

Tess Taylor shares some of her favorite poetry collections from the year—good for both savoring alone or gifting to others, including work by Liz Bradfield, Kwame Dawes, and Monika Beisner. "[A] poem can be a home for us, even temporarily - a home that we make out of breath and carefully crafted syllables."

via NPR
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Cover of Jillian Weise's book, The Amputee's Guide to Sex
What Sparks Poetry:
Dustin Pearson on Jillian Weise's "Beautiful Freak Show"

“Up until encountering Jillian’s poetry, I’d more or less repressed or compartmentalized the emotions I felt as a result of my marginalization and always ultimately unsuccessful assimilation, both for fear of how dangerous I thought it was to indulge those emotions and out of societally formed habit. I found a way to misplace, overlook, or normalize horrible things, even if I always survived them."
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