Birthday Cakes (#2sdayPoems)

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#2sDayPoems, Barbara Crooker, Birthday Cakes, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, I Want to Write a Poem to Celebrate, Pinwheel Journal, Rihanna--Birthday Cake, Whale Road Review

 

Poets Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib and Barbara Crooker have wildly different takes on the celebration of passing years.

 

RIHANNA–BIRTHDAY CAKE

by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

rarely is it a good idea to tell someone when they have appeared
in a dream that came to you during a long and hot

week. You know, the kind of week where you do not sleep
much, and instead drag your fingertip along the fluorescent

graves. The kind of week where you say how or oh,
not again. This week, the politician on television says that we are fighting

a different kind of war and I wonder if this means
the kind where everyone returns to their homes unburied, a candle

pushed into a sheet of sugar for every year they’ve missed.
I think I’m saying that a different kind of war is maybe not a war

at all, but then what here would keep us up at night.
I shake my worry for the born and unborn alike out

of a pill box and swallow it with a glass of water. And I hesitate
to say this, friends. But when I finally let go and closed my eyes…

FULL TEXT HERE (Pinwheel Journal)

 

 

I WANT TO WRITE A POEM TO CELEBRATE

by Barbara Crooker

the body, as it ages, its mystery and majesty,
the scars, the lines, the silver threads
unwinding. I no longer care about air-brushed
perfect people in glossy magazines. I want to celebrate
the real: weak ankles courtesy of afternoons
chasing a puck on a frozen pond. Thighs, more Venus
of Willendorf than Kate Moss or Twiggy. Upper arms
that wobble like jello no matter how many reps
I do at the gym. Belly that stretched big as a watermelon,
then spit out (how did that happen?) sweet pink babies.
Breasts that fed them, rivers of thin blue milk.
Yes, I’ve made the turn onto the unpaved road,
where fat yellow leaves hang overhead. Things…

 

FULL TEXT HERE (Whale Road Review)

 

#NationalPoetryMonth’16 Round-up (Day 18)

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#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, 30dpc, Apparatus Magazine, Barbara Crooker, Brenda Hillman, Brenda Shaughnessy, C.D. Wright, Found Poetry Review, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Indiana Humanities, Jo Bell, Latino poetry, Lithub, Madhuri Blaylock, Mariah Wilson, Mary Caroll-Hackett, Meredith Bergmann, NotaLiteraryJournal, NPM16, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, Poetry School, QuillsEdge Press, Sonja Livingstone, Winter Tangerine, women poets

DAY EIGHTEEN of the best prompts, poems and news from your  #NaPoWriMo/#NPM16/#NaPoMo /#NationalPoetryMonth/#poemaday hashtags.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Sound of Home prompt”
NotaLiteraryJournal’s “Ode to Thing(s) You Can’t Live Without prompt”
Indiana Humanities’ “Memories of Childhood Toy prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Office poem prompt”
Poetry School’s “Contradictions & Paradoxes prompt”
Mariah Wilson’s “Poem to Person You Miss prompts”
QuillsEdge Press’ “You as a Fireplace prompt”
Found Poetry’s “3 Word-gathering Assist prompts”
Apparatus Mag’s “Pop Culture Sestina challenge”
Imaginary Garden’s “New Perspective (Surprise) prompt”
30dpc “Strange Objects prompt”
Jo Bell’s “Shame prompt”
Winter Tangerine’s “Letter to a Planet”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Brenda Hillman “Some Kinds of Forever Visit You”
Meredith Bergmann “Nursery Rhyme”
Madhuri Blaylock “Ghosts of Childhood”
Barbara Crooker “Women”
Brenda Shaughnessy “I Have a Time Machine”

Miscellaneous

Feature on Poet Sonja Livingstone (Mary Carroll-Hackett)
5 New Latino Poetry Books for NPM (NBC News)
Remembering the Great C.D. Wright (LitHub)

**Poets, if you would like to be featured in 2sDay Poems, have your collection reviewed, guest post in the Poetry Lab or blog on any of the Thoughts on Poetry topics, including Foremother Friday or Small Press Interviews, drop me a line at  bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 27)

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#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, Ann E. Michael, Anti-Slavery Poems, Apparatus Magazine, Barbara Crooker, Bethany Schultz Hurst, Celina Villagracia, Chana Bloch, fairytale poems, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Maria Hummel, Marin Poetry Center, Miss Rumphius Effect, Mouthfeel Press, mslexia, Negative Capability Press, Nora Dauenhauer, Ocean Vuong, pink ink press, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, Rattle, Stories& Slams, Storyscape, Terrance Hayes, Tom C. Hunley, West Trestle Review, Wild Violet, Will Nixon, women poets, Younger Than That Now

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY TWENTY-SEVEN of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

Apparatus Magazine’s “Pop Culture Sestinas”
30dpc “Waiting with Form prompt”
Imaginary Garden with Read Toads “Recipe prompt”
Negative Capability Press’ “Body poems after Laura Riding”
West Trestle Review “Strangers photo prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Looking Back prompt”
Stories& Slams’ “Monday Quatrains”
Wild Violet’s “Uses of X prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Hay(na)ku prompt”
Pink Ink Press’ “The Confessional Poem”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Jumping Into Form: Concrete Poems”
Younger Than That Now’s “No Makeup prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Nora Dauenhauer| “Tlingit Concrete Poem (1984)”
Will Nixon| “National Poetry Month”
Bethany Schultz Hurst| “Birds, Disappearing”
Celina Villagarcia| “Cayendo Sobre el Piso”
Ocean Vuong| “Someday I’ll Love” (w/ audio)
Tom C. Hunley| “i can’t sleep so i’ll tell you a story”
Terrance Hayes| “Black Confederate Ghost Story”
Kate Bernadette Benedict| “Wonders of Biotech”
Barbara Crooker| “Sometimes, I am Startled Out of Myself,”
Ann E. Michael| “During Wartime”

Miscellaneous

Marin Poetry Center Presents Chana Bloch & Maria Hummel (video)
Poems of Anglo-African &National Anti-Slavery Standard
Top 10 Fairytale Poems at Tweetspeak

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 15)

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#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 32 Poems, Ada Limon, AGNI, Anna Akhmatova, Apparatus Magazine, Barbara Crooker, Best American Poets, Blogalicious, Bluets, craft talks, found poems, Ha Kiet Chau, Harriet poetry blog, Iain Haley Pollock, James Author, Jorie Graham, journals accepting summer submissions, latino poets, Lee Hynes, Maggie Smith, Miss Rumphius Effect, Modigliani, Naomi Shihab Nye, Negative Capability Press, O Magazine, Paula Meehan, pink ink press, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetry and Grief, Poetry Foundation, poetry prompts, punctuation and poetry, Susan Rich, the language inside, Timothy Green, visual poems, Wild Violet, women poets

DAY FIFTEEN, Poets. We are half-way through! Today’s round-up of the best in prompts, poems and news from #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth coming at ya.

Best of the Prompts

Negative Capability Press’ “Poems w/ Colors in the Style of Nelson’s Bluets“
The Language Inside’s “Narrative poems after Naomi Shihab Nye”
Pink Ink Press’ “Tabloid Fever prompt”
O magazine’s “Insomniac prompt after Susan Rich”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Adjectives as Titles prompt “
NaPoWriMo’s “Poems That Address Themselves”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Through The Opposition’s Eyes prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s Jumping Into Form: Found Poems”
REWIND Being Poetry’s “Fairytale prompt”
Wild Violet’s “M is for Memory prompt”
REWIND Lee Hynes’ “(Visual) Paper Poems prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Maggie Smith| “Wren Songs”
Ada Limón| “Sharks in the Rivers”
Barbara Crooker| “Peeps”
Ha Kiet Chau| “A Bird’s Eye’s View”
Iain Haley Pollock| “Violets For Your Furs” (w/ commentary)
Jorie Graham| “Coaltrains Crossing the Wyoming Prairie”

Miscellaneous

9 L.A. Poets Giving Latinos a Voice
Punctuation and Poetry at Poets Online
Journals Accepting Summer Submissions at Blogalicious
Paula Meehan: The Poet at 60
Timothy Green’s Take on Submission Fees at Best American Poetry blog
Modigliani and the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova at the Telegraph
Poetry and Grief at Harriet Blog
Poetry as a Way of Thinking: Interview w/ James Author at 32 Poems