For each day of National Poetry Month one of our fellows will explore the breadth of poetry in three ways: through a question from another fellow, through a poem and through a writing prompt, #writetoday.
[QUESTION]
Cynthia Arrieu-King asks, “What tends to stir your poetic impulses on the internet?”
Tamiko Beyer responds:
10 things that stir my poetic impulse on the internet
- How it is, at its essence, a digital manifestation of the poetic leap
- What it builds through language
- How it is a tool by which we are changing the world for better
- How I stumble into music
- Videos that delight and astound me (and I love that it was my mom who sent me the latter via email)
- How it connects us
- How it helps me remember
- Getting a poem every day in my inbox
- How it connects us
[POEM]
Push down to lock
- after Nan Goldin’s “Smokey Car,” 1979
when there was glow
and we cranked
a handle to roll
ourselves down
beer tab and sunlight
pulse and pulse :: once
fingertips ghosted windows
so I filled my lungs with smoke
let the seatbelt dangle full
of longing my denim hip
pressed firmly against yours
my face a thin thing
at your neck inhale sweat and want
my fourth rib and my fifth
knocking at the city skyline
trash collecting like snow drift
at the curb :: we ash
out the window we croon
lay me across vinyl seat split to foam
I am all leg
dearest, earlobe wet
to shudder
[BIO]
Photo by Kian Goh.
Tamiko Beyer is the author of We Come Elemental (Alice James Books) and a corporate-crime fighter.