We will be holding our Second Tuesday poetry reading series on July 14th, 2020, via Zoom. We hope you’ll join us. Please see the flyer above for more information on our featured poets, Connie Post and Michael Meyerhofer.
Live links for reading here:
For the open mic: https://padlet.com/beratliss/
For the Zoom reading: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/
Our Annual Meeting is open to all MoSt members! Join us for a Zoom meeting on Sunday, July 12 at 3:00. We’ll be reflecting on the past year, discussing new initiatives, electing/re-electing board members, and getting excited about all the MoSt events we have planned.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP to info@mostpoetry.org with MEETING in the subject line, and we’ll send you the Zoom invite. If you are unable to attend, but interested in all the goings-on, we can send you the minutes as soon as those are available. And, of course, if you are interested in becoming part of our board, please let us know!
Jun 30
by Eugene B. Redmond
In the highflown language
Of moon travelers
Social Scientists sort our hurts—
Add their smog-crippled vision—
And rearrange our private pains
Along the Wall Street of current demands:
And my people become the
Cocaine that makes America high:
Become dreams
America sucks through maniacal straws of sleep;
Discounting our lore,
The scientists say we cannot love
say our needs are numbed:
But, sometimes,
When you construct knots in my throat
And your lips re-create my heartclock
I am hypnotized by the aggregate passion
Of my past by the sun of my historical ecstasy:
A power we know
Cannot be stilled by airborne theories of scholars
Nestled in Freudian citadels
A power that cannot be seen
Heard
Or flattened to fit the pages of a book
From: THE EYE IN THE CEILING: SELECTED POEMS. Harlem River Press, 1991
Most Poetry will post a poem by a Black poet each day through the month of June.
Jun 29
Greetings, MoSt Poetry members! Thank you for considering sharing the poetry you find especially moving, inspiring, or amazing by Poets of Color. This group includes Black poets, but also Indigenous/Native American poets, Hispanic/Chicano/Latinx poets, and poets of Middle Eastern, East Indian, and Asian descent. We are sharing this poetry on the MoSt Facebook page (and other social media) through the month of July as too often these groups have been marginalized and their contributions to poetry have not been recognized. Their voices deserve to be heard.
When submitting a poem, please follow the guidelines below. This helps us to post the poem in a clean and easy way and also makes sure that we give credit where credit is due. Please note that the name of the person who suggested the poem is not included in the post, and that MoSt reserves the right to not post any poem if the submission guidelines are not met. We will only consider poems suggested by MoSt members. If you’d like to become a member, you can find the membership form on the front page of our website.
If you’d like to see an example of a poem we have posted, please check out the MoSt Facebook page for any day in June.
Thank you!
Jun 29
by Audre Lorde
For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours;
For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.
And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
Copyright 1978, Audre Lorde, from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF AUDRE LORDE by Audre Lorde. Copyright 1997 by the Audre Lorde Estate.
Please consider donating to Justice for Black Girls Oluwatoyin Freedom Fighters Fund, which provides monetary relief for Black girl activists on the frontlines.
Most Poetry will post a poem by a Black poet each day through the month of June.
