Bruce Weigl: “‘Thinking about Her’ is simply what it says. I was thinking about a friend of mine, but the surprise, at least for me, is the sad face of the statue. That’s what she said to me, this friend, one day in Ha Noi.”
Abby E. Murray: “My nine-year-old recently asked me point-blank if it was worth it to grow up in “such a cruel world” and I really didn’t know how to answer. Her point was that the violence and grief of living today might be beyond overwhelming, but I couldn’t help also noting the profound impact of kindness on the same world. And who are we to say with certainty that a deeply humane commitment to one another isn’t as old as our willingness to destroy? Kindness may be nearby all the time, even if we can’t see it; Wednesday’s blue supermoon was the perfect vehicle for me to finally try answering my daughter’s question about all the energy it takes to keep going right now.” (web)
Fae Merritt: “I like writing because it’s fun to make up stories and write about your ideas. It can be not real in the world but it becomes real when you write it.”
Gray Thomas: “This poem was composed after a writing prompt provided by the Salt Lake Community College Writing Center during an April 30/30 challenge. Due to the nature of the challenge, it was written hastily at a bar with a buzz of activity swirling around me. Sometimes I enjoy plucking the vibrations of people surrounding me—as though my pen is a needle on a seismograph measuring an earthquake.” (web)
“Aphorisms Thrown into the Eye of the Blizzard” by Tamara RaidtPosted by Rattle
Image: “Here I Go” by Elizabeth Hlookoff. “Aphorisms Thrown into the Eye of the Blizzard” was written by Tamara Raidt for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, July 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice. (PDF / JPG)
__________
Tamara Raidt
APHORISMS THROWN INTO THE EYE OF THE BLIZZARD
1. A girl walks into a blizzard of waltzing lights.
The other end of the tunnel is not as near as you think.
2. If you stare at the sun you’ll see a Cyclops face.
Ulysses and Nobody are the same person.
3. A girl doesn’t need to introduce herself to strangers.
Men often forget to ask for permission.
4. A girl disappeared next door and was never found again.
That is not true. She was found in a park.
5. She was found dead in a park behind buzzing bushes.
Words and their order matter.
6. At mass the priest made everyone stand up and pray.
Her coffin smelled like cheap wood.
7. Someone told me she now lives in the sky.
I do not believe they got it right.
8. So Ulysses said Nobody with the confidence of a lying man.
And the witnesses saw nobody, they saw nobody in a park.
9. I’m almost sure where she lives now.
Please let it not be behind baseboards of sprung floors.
10. The sun is as round as bellies can get.
There are as many stars as versions of what happened.
11. One version is my favorite and it goes like this:
Comment from the series editor, Megan O’Reilly: “When I chose ‘Aphorisms Thrown into the Eye of the Blizzard’ as my winner for the Ekphrastic Challenge this month, I knew I’d have to give a disclaimer: I love this poem but I’m not sure I’m equipped for it, and that’s partly because–brace yourselves–I’ve never read the Odyssey, which the poet clearly references with great significance. While I can’t do justice to the layers of meaning here, I am very compelled by the profundity I can sense, if not fully grasp. I enjoy the way this poem unfolds, the language and content becoming more open and revealing, and the way most lines are strong enough to stand alone–‘The sun is as round as bellies can get’ is a poem in and of itself. The facelessness of the female figure in the painting and the abstract nature of the swirling circle she exists within are elements that strike me as dark and haunting, and I find ‘Aphorisms …’ to have that same sense of evocative unease.”
When I was fourteen they held a personal defense training for all the girls in my high school. It took
sixteen seconds
for the male demonstrator to get me onto my chest on the floor. I felt for the first time what it is like to be held down. I felt how powerless I can become. If there is a world in which I am not a woman I do not know what I would be. I have heard too many stories of ex-girlfriends left dead by morning. Last year, students in my neighbourhood woke in the night to find
strange men crouched over their bodies.
I dream of my ex-boyfriend pushing open my bedroom window in my sleep. I check twice that the doors are locked. I circle his name on a map of places to look should I disappear. I practice swinging a metal baseball bat as if it could serve any purpose at all because it took
sixteen seconds
for the demonstrator to get me onto my chest on the floor. His body an armored shield. His knee a pin against my back. If there is a world in which I am not a woman I do not know what I would be. I have read too many stories of past lovers killed in a car’s backseat. Last Saturday, a man at a bus stop
whistled at me,
words curled into the form of a fist. I wonder what the boys did on personal defense day. If they were taught how to safeguard against assaulting someone. Last winter, a man cornered me at the top of a hill, his laughter condensing into
all the ways he might kill me.
I wonder what the boys did on personal defense day. I want to be the kind of woman who catcalls men back. I want to be a girl who can flip a boy onto his chest in sixteen seconds. I write a list of the things I will say the next time a stranger calls out at me on the street. I fear that, come time, I will open my mouth and an
Lisa Shen: “When I was in grade nine, all the girls had to do a ‘personal defense’ training. A man in full body armor tackled us one by one in a sexual assault simulation, and we were instructed on how to fend off the attack. The main thing I learned was that I had no chance of fighting back. This poem is about the culture of fear surrounding girlhood and womanhood, and how we need to address the root causes of gender-based violence by educating teens about consent.” (web)
Diane Stone: “My grandfather taught me that poetry happens anywhere. He quoted his favorite poems even when we went fishing. Because of him, I think of poetry as a best friend. It helps me focus, helps me remember those tiny details from years ago, helps me see the big picture, reminds me to be patient.”