welcome. hello.
I’m so glad you’re here with me. This month, I’ve been focused on finding the ordinary in the extraordinary. As a poet, I’ve spent a lot of time doing the reverse, so this other approach is novel. When the earth quaked in Brooklyn, I was with a small group of teenagers, one of whom was on her ceaseless gamer chat and got word that yes it is an earthquake and yes it’s happening in Jersey too. I honor the power of the gamer group chat to identify a natural disaster before my heart even had time to beat faster. That afternoon, during my first Italian lesson, I learned “terremoto” as a word. I honor this moving word. A few days later, during the eclipse, my sister sent a video of my mom watching the moon pass across the sun through her glasses while trying her first Takis. She was most amazed at the flavor-punch. I honor artificial flavors that outdo an eclipse. And now, in seriousness. In an extraordinary show of protest and solidarity, students arrested en masse at Columbia University were replaced by more students, and then joined by faculty. Students on campuses across the country set up similar encampments, in solidarity, and to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I’m grateful to every student, faculty member, and supporting community member, showing up to stop the on-going violence against and displacement of Palestinians. I honor the power of replication, an ordinary tactic which activists know to be extraordinary.
tiny review
Laura Henriksen’s first collection, Laura’s Desires (Nightboat), is a dream. Comprised of two long poems: the first, “Dream Dream Dream,” is a 33 page prose poem in sections about dream worlds, dream references in pop songs, and Laura’s dreams and their relationship to death, madness and love (“I mean, what holds anything down, when the stolen ground of this earth and the metaphoric ground of ourselves are both so unstable, precarious?”). The second is a 108 page poem titled “Laura’s Desires” that uses the 1983 film Variety as a frame to explore pleasure, knowledge, art and experience - ranging from references to Christianity, group sex (I sense that I am of the same material / as the earth on that day, like a handprint / left on the mattress in an ad for memory foam / just before it slowly disappears, as if instead / of being subject to the force of gravity, / I am its very center, the wet dirt / holding all the weight there is / to hold in a precarious balance”), Twin Peaks, open relationships, Simone Weil, and Petrarch’s sonnets. The book is whip-smart, authentic, grounded and visionary. Henriksen’s attention to each line (“cars, trash bags tripping aimless”) is exemplary - I couldn’t find a dull one. Reading it is the perfect way to spend a full-moon evening.
tiny ritual
It’s extraordinary that people continue to take actions that inspire and impact others, that people continue to make art that moves and nourishes and excites and confounds others. An ordinary thank you is in order here.
I usually, if possible and the scale is right, send a note to writers, artists and activists after encountering and appreciating their work. Sometimes those people respond. Sometimes not. It doesn’t matter. It feels good to thank someone for what they do or make, to tell them what it means to you. It’s an act of love to do so. Personal gratitude lists are a gorgeous practice. A note of gratitude and appreciation shared with another living being is luminous. I’m about to send such a note to Laura Henriksen.
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Writing prompt: Select something extraordinary you witnessed or experienced. Scan your memory, archives, or imagination for the most ordinary detail you can find within that event. Focus your writing there.
offerings & news
SEEDS: a generative spring poetry-writing workshop, on Zoom, every Wednesday evening in May—last call to sign up here! One scholarship is available, so be in touch if you’d like to join but can’t swing the cost.
Using somatic and coaching practices, I help clients listen more deeply to their desires and take that next elusive step. Learn more about mind-body coaching with me here.
I also offer reflective manuscript consultations, primarily to poets who have a collection drafted. I have five openings for this summer. Check out testimonials here.
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My friends are up to good things:
Want to play with some wildly visionary electronic musical instruments? Landscape is hosting Open Studios on April 25, 6-9:30pm at 244 N 6th Street in Brooklyn.
Ugly Duckling Presse celebrates four new titles on May 11: books by the inimitable alex cuff, Valerie Hsiung, Fatemeh Shams, and Kendra Sullivan. I hope to see you there! Say hello, please.
Check out “Locating Lorine Niedecker”—a cluster of critical essays published by Post45: Contemporaries, co-edited by Brandon Menke and Sarah Dimick, featuring additional contributions from Hoa Nguyen, Sasha Steensen, Samia Rahimtoola, and Michelle Niemann, that explore the intricacies of poet and feminist icon Lorine Niedecker's life and work. Plus, the feature includes a portfolio of poetry and poetics that showcase Niedecker's enduring presence in contemporary poetry!
sending love,
emily