Your Poem/My Poem volume II
Your Poem… My Poem (Volume II)
Erica Reid, Jade Dove, and Danielle McMahon
Erica Reid - Your Poem: Deciduous/ My Poem: Saturday May Mornings
Here I share a portion of Erica Reid’s Ghost Man on Second "Deciduous." Reid presents a very strong collection. I especially connected to her pieces about distance from family, like this piece. I also connected this theme to the idea of slowing down and time as seasons change. That is really what my first book, Record Player Life (the b-side), is all about.
by Erica Reid
Saturday May Mornings by Rachel Turney from Record Player Life (the b-side)
Another cup of coffee,
the smell of your skin.
Wool blanket scratching my back,
I spill a drop on the white throw pillow again.
Radiohead on the record player,
you get up to flip to the b-side.
Everything is perfectly still in those twenty seconds,
morning calm.
The neighbor walks by with their dog,
the sprinklers make a sputtering sound.
New buds on the big tree,
soon our view of the mountains will be eclipsed.
Fresh cut grass,
like a perfume I wore in high school.
Your arm stretched across the sofa,
your legs resting on the table.
Coconut milk and beans from Belize,
Thom Yorke telling us to slow down.
***
Jade Dove - Your Poem: Tidepool/ My Poem: Beautiful
I love this Seaside Fairytale that makes whimsical and beautiful a quiet summer love. What’s it like to get lost in the beauty of a person, the beauty of a moment? Most poets know, and Jade captures it perfectly in this short poem set by the sea. This reminded me of a time I found myself enamored in a club in Shanghai way back in 2009. I wrote about it in Retired Wannabe Club Kid.
by Jade Dove
Beautiful by Rachel Turney from Retired Wannabe Club Kid
I must have told her
one thousand times
that she was beautiful.
Did she hear me?
I said it in Mandarin
just to be sure.
美丽的
She smiled but
did she understand?
She was glitter,
everything bright
and sparkling.
She was the way
your eyes open
after that first sip
of matcha latte.
She was the pull
of the night.
I was water
and she was
the moon.
***
Danielle McMahon - Your Poem: moonlight/ My Poem: Record Player Life
Danielle McMahon’s poem “moonlight” is a music-driven poem about finding joy in the daily. It’s about a relationship with the self and another person and the collision of those two things with time. I think most poets find a lot of inspiration in relationships; poets are often also anthropologists. Danielle’s piece parallels some of my own musings about the passing of time, the daily, and music.
by Danielle McMahon
Record Player Life by Rachel Turney from Record Player Life (the b-side)
It’s the little interruptions that stitch the hours together
The flipping of the record
The brewing of a second pot of coffee
The gentle stirring in of the cream
The unclipping and reclipping of
The hanging plants according to the wind
The stylus tracing the grooves
The electrical signals amplified
The rhythm of the pendulum swing
The train that rolls along the tracks nearby
The fading clack clack clack
The movement forward
