What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature that explores experiences and ideas that spark the writing of new poems. In our fourth series, Object Lessons, poets meditate on the magical journey from object to poem via one of their own poems. Each Monday's delivery brings you the poem and an excerpt from the essay.
That yellow was a falling off, a fall for once I saw coming — it could in its stillness still be turned from, it was not yet ferocious, its hold drew me, was a shiny switchplate in the otherwise dark, rash, ongoing green, a green so hungry for light and air that part gave up, went alone, chose to leave, and by choosing embellishment got seen.
“I remember telling my students give me a minute I have to write something down, and though I say 'the words just came' the language itself felt almost intrusive, like a clumsy adaptation of a finer, more efficient form of communication—and yet, the pressure to inscribe was compelling. It was like passively receiving something and also being able to physically make something at the same time."
Patricia Smith, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Toi Derricotte, Tina Chang, and Ellen Bass discuss writing about the body and share poems on the subject. "With a sublime mastery of language and craft, they ask us to consider bodies facing attacks both physical and psychological. They write in defense, in awe and awareness of the body, pointing again and again to our shared humanity."
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.
