we believe that stars have orbits / and don’t leave or fade / but like comets make visitations
Alexis Pauline Gumbs read Shouldering the Sky, by Elmaz Abinader. Driving through the warm winter afternoon I listened to it, stunned. I listened again and again. Phrases ringing in my ears.
to remind us that fire / is the substance of our presence/ on this earth.
roaring, blistering. bright. extinguished too soon.
interrupted mid-line, words hanging / in the air that we try to catch / before they ascend into the dark night
the poets telling the truth. the poets read each other’s truths. the words so sharp they take my breath away, stop me in my tracks.
I turn to the words “as other things you thought you could stand on erode.”1
APG dedicated her reading to the children of Palestine, “the children who we understand to be our cosmic accountability, our shared cosmic accountability.” She shared that it meant a lot to her to read this poem this morning, moved her to tears. I was grateful for the generosity of sharing what meant a lot to her, for the clarity of imagination that it might matter a lot to me, us too.
we pass each other by. we, comets. into orbit for a only moment. this visitation. i try to catch the words. i catch a few. the rest are on fire.
Dub, 242 ↩