Writers Resist is delighted—again—to introduce a new poetry editor: Laura Orem is joining Ruth Nolan in our pursuit of resistance poetry.
Laura is a poet, essayist and visual artist. She’s the author of Resurrection Biology (Finishing Line Press 2017) and the chapbook Castrata: a Conversation (Finishing Line Press 2014). Laura received an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College and taught writing for many years at Goucher College in Baltimore.
A featured writer at the Best American Poetry blog, Laura’s poetry, essays and art have appeared in many journals, including Nimrod, Zocalo Public Square, DMQ, Everlasting Verses, Blueline, Atticus Review, Barefoot Review, OCHO, and Mipoesias. She lives on a small farm in Red Lion, Pennsylvania with her husband, three dogs, and so many cats she’s afraid to say.
Laura’s gift for our readers:
New Year’s Poem for the American Government
Well, things are changing, no
question there, so as a patriot
in the land of the free
I thought it would be nice
to help you when the new admin
istration sends you forth
to save the world from democracy
I’m on the phone a lot
with my poet friends
and you might be confused
by the jargon you hear.
Prosody has its own code,
but not the kind
you’re thinking of.
An anapest is not a gun
A dactyl not a religious war
Synecdoche is not an ancient rite
of setting fire to government buildings
Prose is not the professional cadre
of trained assassins of poetry.
A masculine endstop is not a boy
who slits the throat of the enemy
A villanelle is not
a female suicide bomber
A quatrain isn’t a terrorist cell
A rhyme scheme isn’t jihad
Sestinas and sonnets,
neither are headscarves
Taha Mohammed Ali
was not an imam
Rumi was never a soldier.
A ghazal is not an RPG
A madih is not a mortar.
Scansion is metrics
which is counting
which is not
a sect dedicated
to executing a coup
on the boss.
Take off your earphones.
What he’s told you is lies.
Dear listeners dear spies
remember that, please.
Photo credit: “Private Poetry” by John Jones via a Creative Commons license.
Share your thoughts about this.