J., Sheffield, UK
Sometimes it feels like my body holds fears from decades and generations
back, fears that are even scared of a well-meant antidote – can you suggest a poem
that might break through this tussle?
J
KA:
Often times the poems we read describe experiences—emotional or
narrative—rather than enact them, in either sound or image. I love a poem that does
not describe, but really at the level of syllable and sound, vowel and consonant, can
help the reader feel something.
Jean Valentine is just such a poet for me. This poem is one of my favorites because
it enacts a model of care and love that exists beyond time, and it does so with the
simplest and most whimsical of images.
Mare and Newborn Foal
When you die
-Jean Valentine
there are bales of hay
heaped high in space
mean while
with my tongue
I draw the black straw
out of you
mean while
with your tongue
you draw the black straw out of me.
