another round of poems

April is National Poetry Month. Poets and poetry-lovers alike are celebrating in a myriad of ways. There are conferences and festivals, slams and open mics, contests and challenges, like  NaPoWriMo.

Over here at Zafatista, I know the least I can do to celebrate is post another list of some of my favorite poems. I created the first list back in September, and it is certainly time for another. I dug up many of these pieces in my Norton Anthology of Poetry, which I read in a high school English class. The book is a treasure, although it does not represent nearly enough women poets or poets of color or women poets of color.

Each poem tells a unique story. Read and comment as you see fit. Preferably, before NPM is over. :) 

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop 

Dream Variations by Langston Hughes

El Chicle by Ana Castillo

Ars Politica by Julia Alvarez

When I Have Fears by John Keats

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud by William Wordsworth

This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams

The Wrong Kitchen by Nikki Giovanni

Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Crazy Bunch Barbecue by Willie Perdomo

The Promise by Sharon Olds

Poets from bottom to top: Ana Castillo, Nikki Giovanni, William Carlos Williams.

love's philosophy

Nothing calls for a love poem quite like spring! Here's one by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The photographs above were taken by yours truly last year in Fort Greene Park. 

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY

by P.B. Shelley 

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle - 

Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth,

And the moonbeams kiss the sea - 

What are all these kissings worth

If thou kiss not me?

As far as the Romantics go, Keats has always been my favorite, but Shelley ain't bad here. Not bad at all! 

Although I studied Shelley in college, I did not discover this poem until years later in the wrapper of a chocolate bar. Needless to say, I fell in love with this poem instantly. 

I am not so crazy about the line, "No sister-flower would be forgiven/If it disdained its brother" for the clearly antiquated anti-feminist message it conveys (Ain't nothing romantic about the absence of consent!). However, overall, the poem is beautiful and its images do speak to the harmony and union possible in love and physicality. 

Just look at the use of the word "clasp"! The waves clasp one another! The sunlight clasps the earth! Oh! Love it!

And then there is the final couplet! Who could ever forget these lines? "What are all these kissings worth/If thou kiss not me?"

The poem seems especially appropriate for springtime. The pear tree blossoms outside my window are kissing each other! The sunlight clasps the pavement! The bus kisses the curb and nearly runs us over! I will be walking around Brooklyn, identifying all the things that are kissing and clasping each other all season long. 

persimmons by li-young lee

In sixth grade Mrs. Walker
slapped the back of my head
and made me stand in the corner  
for not knowing the difference  
between persimmon and precision.  
How to choose

persimmons. This is precision.
Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted.  
Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one
will be fragrant. How to eat:
put the knife away, lay down newspaper.  
Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.  
Chew the skin, suck it,
and swallow. Now, eat
the meat of the fruit,
so sweet,
all of it, to the heart.

Donna undresses, her stomach is white.  
In the yard, dewy and shivering
with crickets, we lie naked,
face-up, face-down.
I teach her Chinese.
Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten.  
Naked:   I’ve forgotten. Ni, wo:   you and me.
I part her legs,
remember to tell her
she is beautiful as the moon...


The verses above make up the first three stanzas of the poem Persimmons by Li-Young Lee. View the full text of the poem here. I rediscovered this piece while looking through the Norton Anthology of Poetry I read for a high school poetry class. 


The poem is beautiful. I love pieces that link food to memory, family, language, who we are, where we have been, and who we have been. Another good food/identity poem is Patricia Smith's When the Burning Begins, which is about hot water cornbread, her childhood, and her relationship to her father, loss, and the creative power of poetry. 

5 Thoughts In Response to John Mayer's Playboy Interview

Cause a picture of Staceyann Chin is always better than a picture of John Mayer

1. So, when John Mayer says his penis is a "white supremacist", does he realize he isn't  just saying that he doesn't find black women attractive? Does he realize that the idea of a "white supremacist penis" evokes rape for a lot of women? Not to mention, slavery? White supremacy is not a simple matter of preference. If your penis is a white supremacist, you've got a big problem. Does your penis wear little pointed white hats too? If your penis is a white supremacist, you need a new one. 

2. Why does John Mayer  keep saying he was trying to be "witty" and "edgy"? Doesn't he know that being a white man with lots of power who brags of his sexual exploits, makes light of racism, and demeans women doesn't make him edgy? Things that are edgy should play with our expectations or challenge the power structure. John Mayer isn't shaking up any expectations or power structure - he is conforming to the violent status quo so many of us are trying to break down (for our own survival). Furthermore, you can't dismiss your racist, sexist comments as "slips of the tongue" or failed attempts at being clever. Take them for what they are --- insight into the internalized racism and sexism you're carrying and need to work on if you want to be a better person. 

3. It's clear John Mayer doesn't love women. Having sex with women doesn't mean you love them. "Daughters" officially counts for nothing. A theoretical or professed love for women doesn't matter. Spare us the ballad and just treat women better/don't have a white supremacist penis. 

4. Sexual napalm - WHAT!? 

5. Never call yourself a blues singer. Again. 

Enough about John Mayer. All this talk calls for some Staceyann Chin. Check out "Common Truths or Why I Love My Vagina." The poem includes some mature language, but it is beautiful and one of my favorites. On the link (which is an HTML version of a publication that printed the poem), go down to page 8 to read. 

Three cheers for the women of color who wake up every day and mess up the power structure. That's edgy, to say the least. 

poets out loud

On Thursday, November 12, I went to a Poets Out Loud event at Fordham University. It was coordinated by my awesome friend and fellow writer, Li Yun Alvarado, who read some of her own work at the event. There were folks there from Acentos, the Fordham creative writing program, and the city at large.

In addition to Alvarado, three other poets read: Tara Betts, Rachel McKibbens, and Willie Perdomo. I was not familiar with their work before the event, but I am now a bonafide fan of each poet: I own books, I follow blogs, I quote favorite lines...

Tara Betts is a native of Chicago and a Cave Canem fellow. Her poems explore issues of urban life, race, and gender. Rachel McKibbens is the founder of the Right Coast Writers Brigade and her narrative poems are about coming of age, motherhood, and violence against women and children. Willie Perdomo has been described as the unofficial poet laureate of the Puerto Rican Diaspora by Junto Diaz, who also proclaimed that what Perdomo " knows about being of color, being between languages, being poor, being a man, being in trouble, could save your life."

There is nothing like listening to a poet read her own work, so I am including links to audio and video of each poet reading. I was not able to find a recording of Li Yun reading, so you will find a link to the text of one of her poems below. I hope you enjoy the pieces.

"Poet in Harlem" - Willie Perdomo

"What It's Like to Be a Mixed Girl (For Those of You Who Aren't)" - Tara Betts

"Central Park, Mother's Day" - Rachel McKibbens

"Your Back" - Li Yun Alvarado

Discover these great poets and support their work!

poems i like

This post is pretty self-explanatory. I am putting up a list of some of my favorite poems. Each poem title links to a website where you can read the text. I cannot vouch for the websites hosting these poems. I found the links on Google and just put them up. Consider this my disclaimer for any sketchy content you may stumble upon on these sites. This being said, all of the poems are worth reading. Please leave comments including thoughts about these pieces or a list of your own favorite poems.

"Love in Bloodtime" by Sharon Olds

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

"This Living Hand" by John Keats

"Poema X" by Pablo Neruda

"Soliloquy of the Solipsist" by Sylvia Plath

"Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes

"I Ask the Impossible" by Ana Castillo

"Kitchenette Building" by Gwendolyn Brooks

"Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth

"To A Dark Girl" by Gwendolyn Bennett

"Cross-Fire" by Staceyann Chin

"We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

"From the Dark Tower" by Countee Cullen

"1 Corinthians 13"