What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature that explores experiences and ideas that spark the writing of new poems. In our third series, The Poems of Others II, twenty-four poets pay homage to the poems that led them to write. Each Monday's delivery brings you the poem and an excerpt from the essay. 
I don't pretend to have been all pink
and unplucked. I knew nakedness,
knew the rattle of a leg in bed.
You rented a room from an old man
and his girlfriend, always cooking
bacon in the morning. The smell
of grease, the old man's whiskers
on my shoulder, him saying, I've seen you,
and I could smell the meat of him,
peeking from a hole in the closet wall.
Beautiful freak show, he said.
You left the closet door open and he
stopped asking for rent. You ask me
to pivot and pose, unstrap the leg.
I wanted to tell you I'm doing this
for myself. You think I care for
this body? Watch.
from the book THE AMPUTEE'S GUIDE TO SEX / Ecco
READ ABOUT TODAY'S POEM
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
Poetry Daily logo
Poetry Daily Depends on You

Our End-of-Year Fundraising Drive is underway. With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
DONATE NOW
Cover of Jillian Weise's book, The Amputee's Guide to Sex
What Sparks Poetry:
Dustin Pearson on Jillian Weise's "Beautiful Freak Show"

“Up until encountering Jillian’s poetry, I’d more or less repressed or compartmentalized the emotions I felt as a result of my marginalization and always ultimately unsuccessful assimilation, both for fear of how dangerous I thought it was to indulge those emotions and out of societally formed habit. I found a way to misplace, overlook, or normalize horrible things, even if I always survived them."
READ THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
Photograph of Neil Gaiman and a Syrian refugee father and his two children, at a refugee camp in Jordan, 2014

When Neil Gaiman asked his Twitter followers to share what reminded them of warmth, he received nearly 1,000 replies and, "found himself with a 25,000-word document, from which he has composed his newest written work: a freeform poem to launch UNHCR’s Winter Emergency Appeal for refugees across the Middle East."  

via THE GUARDIAN
READ ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES
You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poems.com. 
If you would like to unsubscribe please click here.

© 2019 Poetry Daily, Poetry Daily, MS 3E4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030

Design by the Binding Agency