Where/Did You Sleep Last Night
Brody Parrish Craig
is joy the cattail edge
far past the holler

the birdsong brush
along the mouth
between

us
valleys hillside rolling
eyes

what throat
could overlook
the trees

seedlings
could sprout
along the hollers gap

tongues whistled thru
the future
grasses not unraveled there

the dirt mound rocking
what skulls left
remains

herein
to tap
the stifled

little root
& touch
the base

of limbline
soul
what pines

this moss
across the balded field

I soar
as eagle
angel

just above us
rings

topsoil
to bottomed worm
to catch

what my mouth cups
along the byway

trail sounds lure
what none thought edible:

see-through,
the forest comes.

moist eyes running back
all mossing toward the sun.
from the book THE PATIENT IS AN UNRELIABLE HISTORIAN / Omnidawn
READ ABOUT TODAY'S POEM
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
This poem comes toward the closing half of my new book "The Patient is an Unreliable Historian," and was initially drafted during a period of solo meditation for several days out at Devils Den State Park. This poem serves as a subconscious document that ties together nature, healing and post-traumatic memory. The title is a play off an influential Leadbelly song from my youth.

Brody Parrish Craig on "Where/Did You Sleep Last Night"
Ciona Rouse
"Despite a Thriving Literary Scene, Nashville Lacks a Poet Laureate"

"'Poets keep finding their way here and then creating their own communities,' says local poet Ciona Rouse. Rouse came to Nashville 22 years ago, and has been setting up events, readings and more since her arrival. Many new-in-town poets get pointed her way, and she can name off quite a few poetry collectives and literary organizers in town. She thinks a poet laureate should be someone who helps create spaces for people to engage with poetry."

via NASHVILLE SCENE
READ ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES
Color cover image of Ranjit Hoskote's translation of Mir Taqi Mir, The Homeland's and Ocean
What Sparks Poetry: Ranjit Hoskote on Translation

"Mir’s voice speaks with clarity and urgency, with anguish and a timely critical resonance to our historical moment. His themes are our themes, his loss is our loss, his bewilderment is our bewilderment—the destroyed city, the devastated countryside, the scattering of friends, the exactions of exile. All these are features of our lives today, in a world marred by genocidal wars and forced migrations, invasions and insurrections, tanks and bulldozers, bombed cities and slaughtered populations."
READ THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
donate
View in browser

You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poems.com
If you would like to unsubscribe please click here.

© 2025 Poetry Daily, Poetry Daily, MS 3E4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030

Design by the Binding Agency