November 7, 2024

“Smoking Ceremony” by Hemat MalakPosted by

Hemat Malak

SMOKING CEREMONY

You call me arsonist, mad firefly:
our photos curl and crackle in the sink.
Those years together burn—smoke thick with sighs.
 
I watch the tendrils dance to cleanse the sky
which colours now in hues of rose and pink.
Call me artist—my madness paints goodbye
 
in letters on this canvas, nearly dry.
Make no mistake: this is forever-ink.
The years are burned, the smoke has choked our sighs.
 
The letters starburst into butterflies,
and here’s a toast to which we both can drink:
from arson’s match, we made two fireflies—
 
these children smelted from our mouths and eyes;
our love left bubbles as we watched it sink,
but years have burst into a thousand sighs.
 
There’s comfort as the seasons prophesize—
the vow of fall: to bloom again in spring.
No arsonist, that madness burnt me dry,
this smoke of years in flames to bless our sighs.
 

—from Prompt Poem of the Month
October 2024

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Prompt: Write a villanelle that mentions your favorite season. Make each refrain slightly different.

Note from the series editor, Katie Dozier: “This villanelle burns through turns of phrases with such elegance that we feel like we’re watching a chimney on a cold winter’s day. Hemat lights up the possibilities of language, showing us how a match struck in a slightly different way can entirely change the meaning of a line. The subtlety of ‘hues of rose and pink’ further highlights that distinction—as the two colors appear to be synonyms but their connotations beg to differ. With its brilliant twist from ‘arsonist’ to ‘artist,’ this poem will glow in our minds for many years to come.”

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November 6, 2024

“My Mother Cooks” by Gil ArzolaPosted by

Gil Arzola

MY MOTHER COOKS

Our last supper together was arroz con pollo. There was
no wine. We had no disciples. It was only my mother
and me in the small kitchen. It pleased her to serve me one more time.
Maybe she knew it was going to be our last.
 
My mother rose early that day.
She asked when I would arrive. She did not want to be late.
 
She made tortillas and set them as gently as newborn babies
on top of a cotton cloth where she covered
them to keep them warm. And
like the thousands of times since
she began cooking at eleven years old when she ran out of choices,
she measured nothing.
She had no recipe propped up to tell her how to make the dough,
how long to roll it, how much to make
so that it was always enough.
 
She tossed it together like her life
had been tossed. Like fall leaves and confetti.
Tossed.
She did not need instructions.
Her hands remembered how.
It stuck to her like a tattoo, like the gray in her hair or
the lines her life had carved into the corners of her eyes.
 
She could not tell you how
it had come to this.
She remembered.
That’s all.
 
We did not pray at our last supper.
Maybe she did.
In her head while I ate.
Maybe she did.
 
But I knew no prayers that fit.
And have learned none since.
At our last supper
she was two months short of ninety-three.
She would
be dead in one.
 

—from Rattle #85, Fall 2024

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Gil Arzola: “Nobody cooks like your mother. Among the clearest of my childhood memories is the smell of arroz con pollo (rice and chicken) coming through the old screen door of the migrant cabin where we lived while working the fields. It was a special treat, and I mentioned that to my mother years later. On a visit to see her, she made it for me. It was our last visit, as it turned out, other than visits to the hospital a few months later. This poem was born of that.”

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November 5, 2024

“Election” by Matthew KingPosted by

Matthew King

ELECTION

On plywood walling off a stalled construction
site someone had scrawled: WHAT’S IT ALL WORTH
WITHOUT AN OPEN FREE AND FAIR ELECTION?
Behind it, water seeping from the earth
sought its equilibrium in the pit,
rising, falling, following the weather.
We never saw the message fade. Did it
require an answer? Was it merely clever?
A steel and see-through condo tower stands
there now, I guess—I couldn’t say which one—
to fill the hole and make no such demands
on passersby. The question’s day is done.
It always made us smile but now I doubt
we knew just what it was we smiled about.
 

—from Poets Respond

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Matthew King: “This poem refers to a bit of graffiti I saw many years ago, but the question it posed ironically—obviously, the real question is what’s it all worth with an open free and fair election?—is, for now, as pertinent as ever. This is what your open free and fair elections get you. What do you make of that?” (web)

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November 4, 2024

“Open Mic” by Preston WoodruffPosted by

Preston Woodruff

OPEN MIC

The girl with the guitar has a face as open
and bright as an April full moon until
she starts to sing. The lyrics spill out in words
a decade older than her seventeen years.
The guys in the backup band are old,
they’re friends of her musical mom,
but they love the girl, and know to stay
behind and underneath the voice.
She ends a busted-love song she wrote—
how does she know such blue thoughts?—with
a slow, spiraling diminuendo. The drummer
watches her eyes, and at the last possible instant
swishes a wire brush across his crash cymbal.
The silence that follows is the last note of the song.
 

—from Rattle #85, Fall 2024
Tribute to Musicians

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Preston Woodruff: “I loved performing, but the road wore me out, and anyway, job, family, money—you know the familiar story. I kept playing close to home, though: bass in a jazz trio, pit bands, and chamber orchestra; lute in a Renaissance consort, lounge-lizard solo guitar in restaurants and bars, lots of wedding receptions and one funeral. All fun. Some days I miss it.”

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November 3, 2024

“Holding Vigil” by Alison LutermanPosted by

Alison Luterman

HOLDING VIGIL

My cousin asks if I can describe this moment,
the heaviness of it, like sitting outside
the operating room while someone you love
is in surgery and you’re on those awful plastic chairs
eating flaming Doritos from the vending machine
which is the only thing that seems appealing to you, dinner-wise,
waiting for the moment when the doctor will come out
in her scrubs and face-mask, which she’ll pull down
to tell you whether your beloved will live or not. That’s how it feels
as the hours tick by, and everyone I care about
is texting me with the same cold lump of dread in their throat
asking if I’m okay, telling me how scared they are.
I suppose in that way this is a moment of unity,
the fact that we are all waiting in the same
hospital corridor, for the same patient, who is on life support,
and we’re asking each other, Will he wake up?
Will she be herself? And we’re taking turns holding vigil,
as families do, and bringing each other coffee
from the cafeteria, and some of us think she’s gonna make it
while others are already planning what they’ll wear to the funeral,
which is also what happens at times like these,
and I tell my cousin I don’t think I can describe this moment,
heavier than plutonium, but on the other hand,
in the grand scheme of things, I mean the whole sweep
of human history, a soap bubble, because empires
are always rising and falling, and whole civilizations
die, they do, they get wiped out, this happens
all the time, it’s just a shock when it happens to your civilization,
your country, when it’s someone from your family on the respirator,
and I don’t ask her how she’s sleeping, or what she thinks about
when she wakes at three in the morning,
cause she’s got two daughters, and that’s the thing,
it’s not just us older people, forget about us, we had our day
and we burned right through it, gasoline, fast food,
cheap clothing, but right now I’m talking about the babies,
and not just the human ones, but also the turtles and owls
and white tigers, the Redwoods, the ozone layer,
the icebergs for the love of God—every single
blessed being on the face of this earth
is holding its breath in this moment,
and if you’re asking, can I describe that, Cousin,
then I’ve gotta say no, no one could describe it
we all just have to live through it,
holding each other’s hands.
 

—from Poets Respond

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Alison Luterman: “I don’t have to explain why this moment is so fraught right now. I’m feeling a lot of tenderness for all of us who are suffering anxiety this week, and trying to hold each other up.” (web)

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November 2, 2024

“12 Months Haiku” by Chen XuePosted by

Chen Xue (age 14)

12 MONTHS HAIKU

 
 
Snow footprints
Vanishing into the distance
A silent thief
 
 
Coming wind
Scattered stars
Everywhere
 
 
Ice cracked
Laughters
Out of rivers
 
 
Morning glories
Children’s voices
Dyed pink
 
 
Paper airplanes
Something I don’t know
Happening
 
 
Lemon slice
Red tea
Sunset
 
 
Darkness
How hope
Becomes fireflies
 
 
A bite of mooncake
Sweet clouds
Of dawn
 
 
Pomegranates
In the orchard
Blushing faces
 
 
Kiss marks
On the foggy window
Trembling
 
 
Camphor scent
Woolen gloves
Forget my temperature
 
 
Fireworks
Above a word—
Reunion
 
 

—from 2024 Rattle Young Poets Anthology

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Why do you like to write poetry?

Chen Xue: “I love writing poetry because it brings me solace. When I encounter setbacks in life, I turn to poets from around the world. Though I may not fully grasp their language, their verses always move me to tears. I aspire for my own poetry to be read by more people.”

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November 1, 2024

“A River Runs Through It” by Charles Harper WebbPosted by

Charles Harper Webb

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

Not flows. Runs—watery
knees high, arms pumping,
breath steady and sure.
 
Not the whole river.
That would scare people.
This is a big, kind-hearted
 
river. Splashy and reflecting
light, this river loves
to mix with people—sad
 
so often, full of discontent.
That’s what their big
brain-to-body ratio achieves.
 
The river splashes them
as it runs by, as if
they were little kids
 
playing with squirt guns
on a stifling August day.
What could be more fun
 
than to dash shrieking
around the yard, playing
a game you want to lose,
 
since losing means
you wind up soaking
wet and cool, dripping
 
and laughing? The river
loves to make us feel
that way.
 

—from Rattle #85, Fall 2024
Tribute to Musicians

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Charles Harper Webb: “I was a professional rock singer/guitarist from the age of 15 to 30, playing in Texas, Louisiana, and all over the Northwest. I think my poems have rock-and-roll attitude and energy, and that the same musicianship I showed on stage permeates my poems. In all the clubs and concerts that I played, I tried to excite and entertain my audience, and never to bore them. I bring that same attitude to poetry.” (web)

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