Maurice Riordan
I’ve this gut feeling that inside somewhere,
perched, so to speak, in the innermost wood
of my body or brain, on mute since childhood
a bird-creature lurks in its cramped lair
for when the wood’s consumed, as in a fire,
though also consumed as drinks are or food
(over months or could be years ingesting crude
chemicals, making the sly one ever slyer).
But then crackle ’n pop, it’s all gone for good.
And good riddance, since freed from its bonds
the avian now preens its wings and absconds
from the scene below (that’s me, in my last throes)
skyward like a lark saying fuck to the whole brood
and piping forth some blithe hymn as she goes.
from the journal POETRY
READ ABOUT TODAY'S POEM
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
"I was brought up believing the soul was something literally imprisoned in my body. The conceit of 'The Jailbird' is to resume that rigid understanding—which strikes me as terrifying, of course, and also connected in a funny way to the extreme idealism of Shelley’s 'To a Skylark.'"
 
Handwritten lines scrawled over a printed stanza
"Go Memorize a Poem"

"Robust poems committed to memory can counteract the corrosive effects of self-pity. They can offer a different way of viewing the world, particularly to generations that did not suffer the buffetings of the early and mid-20th century, and are now bewildered by the calamities that seem to arise from nowhere, and leave them powerless."
 
via THE ATLANTIC
READ ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES
Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community

Black Voters Matter Fund: "Black Voters Matter goal is to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. Effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny."

Amistad Law Project: "ALP consists of attorneys, activists, and organizers. We are prison abolitionists who view the prison industrial complex as directly related to the massive divestment from our communities the things that make them safe and strong. We believe that good public education, affordable health care, healthy and affordable food, safe and affordable housing, and the ability to care for our families, no matter what they look like, are human rights."

Third Wave Fund: "Third Wave Fund is an activist fund led by and for women of color, intersex, queer, and trans people under 35 years of age. We work to ensure that young folks are decision-makers at the cutting edge of philanthropy where they are commonly absent." 
Image of dark blue-black sky spattered with stars from which a figure outlined in stars is emerging
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. 
We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality.
We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world.
Black Lives Matter.
What Sparks Poetry:
Sandra Lim on “Black Box”

"Mysteriously, the speaker and the friend, and you and I, might become one mind in the poem; we could intuit something illegible but true, together. The energy of our consciousness is trying to make itself known by and against the energy of everything incomprehensible outside it."
READ THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poems.com. 
If you would like to unsubscribe please click here.

© 2020 Poetry Daily, Poetry Daily, MS 3E4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030

Design by the Binding Agency