Thank you to editor Rhodes Thompson for publishing my poem, “Ars Wormetica,” in the inaugural issue of Hellscape, the literary brainchild of Grad Students in George Mason University’s MFA program. It’s an honor to be included!
psychology
My poem, “Imprisoned,” is up at Claudius Speaks
Thank you to the editors at Claudius Speaks Journal for including my poem, “Imprisoned,” in their themed issue (IV), Flight! You can read this poem in full as it appears in my forthcoming chapbook, THIS BEING DONE (Finishing Line Press), below:
Imprisoned
Now is not the time
for my fettered titanium lines—
no time for me to claim
I know a thing or two about life
as if I were anyone’s keeper…
A “suicidally depressed” convict doing life for murder
petitioned my psychotherapist friend to treat him:
& so it was that with all the detached generosity
a wife & mother of three could muster she rendered
a diagnosis of anti-social personality disorder
even as his icy eyes ignited in her a germ of lust
that razed every trace of her in a sudden flush
Now is really not the time for idle moralizing
about prisoners or locks & keys as if
there were any kind of justice in poetry
It’s not the time for tying up loose ends
saving pennies for rainy days or chrysalizing
our wrinkly little walnut meats to pupate belief
in the virtue of counting the hours
Now the dragon is awake
blinking in the daylight of withering dreams
wagging her head in a gnashing rage
STEPHANIE L. HARPER
Days 26 & 27 of 30!
My Dear WordPress Friends!
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm and patience with me! The joyful interactions that have been happening on this site have served to keep me afloat during what has proven to be quite an extreme challenge for me. You’ve made it possible, and for that I am grateful!
Please take a couple of minutes to check out this AMAZINGLY quirky, inspiring & POETIC video I found on YouTube (link below) to accompany my little ditty on Cuttlefish! You won’t be sorry!
Broken (Day 26)
Your kindergartener learned
a new trick on the monkey bars
yesterday…
Cuttlefish (Day 27)
Watching
the way you negotiate the world
by climbing into platonic forms
to become the myriad ideal bodies
of the sea floor…
Continue reading both pieces (& catch up on Days 1-25) here!
My Day 17 Poem for the May 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press!
Things I Cannot Say
With reverence for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and with special thanks to Robert Okaji for supplying the title that breathed life into this poem
Even when you are a one-year-old jumping out of your crib
(you have no reason for having jumped, but once it’s done,
and the thud you’ve made that was loud but didn’t hurt…
My Day 15 Poem for the May 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press!
Chimera
What cause did I provision for my own death
to be ordered & carried out? Which of my features
amounted to monstrosity? My prescience to forewarn your
Lycian forebears of cataclysmic storms & volcanic eruptions? (…)
I’ve managed to scrape to the half-way point, and would still be ever so grateful for your generous HELP!
My Day 13 Poem for the May 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press!
Titanoboa cerrejonensis
When this diminishing skin of self-pity refuses
to slough off & relinquish its groaning contents,
my pain sends me inward to my prehistoric depths…
My Day 8 Poem for the May 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press
Dross
When the glacial lake outburst flood first scored
her watershed dawn into the earth’s bones
she was meant to be…
Learn More about my participation in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project here:
These 30/30 poems (one per day for 30 days in a row!) must necessarily be composed and published at quite a frenetic pace, especially for “perfectionistic” (which is a far cry from perfect…) me. I’m revealing some pretty raw stuff, and I deeply appreciate the support of everyone reading along! Thank you so much!
My Day 6 Poem for the May 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press
Vessel
The nature of your need dwells beneath
the earth’s most ancient continental rock…
Find out how you can support my both my challenge, and a fabulous, non-profit, independent literary press HERE
My Day 5 Poem for the 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press!
Hypochondria Blues
With gratitude to Crow at Words and Feathers for choosing the words, badger, thrombosis, and erectile…
What you’ve got is only a touch of neurosis,
so don’t get your knickers all bunched in a twist—
your worries will give you a deep vein thrombosis!
Do you think there’s a prize for a self-diagnosis? (…)
Learn more about the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project here…
Come join the fun!
Instead
‘if i decided to stop being a poet
what would i do instead?’ i asked
(my husband) the other night
the other night when it was late
it was too late to start cooking dinner
& the cattle dog who lives for order
requires order & feels its lack
like her hackles feel static she was pacing
between us resorting to vocal admonishments
to higher-than-usual-pitched chortling cajoling
someone to get with the program the other night
after gymnastics & martial arts & driving
driving in gridlock on multiple highways
after the shopping wasn’t done
after & we were too hungry to cook dinner
after hunger became the side dish of the night
after my husband had worked all day
& beer number three hadn’t staved off his hunger
& hunger was a side dish the kids snacked
on chips & played redundant games on their phones
& the floor was unswept the dog was anxious
her nails clicked on the unkempt floor
the cat meowed to be fed the shopping wasn’t done
& so a can of tuna was cracked
the cat’s bowl was filled & we gave the dog the juice
the dog lapped then she went back to clicking
& minutes ticked another hour
while my fingers ticking on the keyboard
whooped up a frenzy of words on the screen
with hurricane intensity they swirled
they dispelled into wisps against cold fronts
& re-galvanized in isolated updrafts but rained nothing
because meaning always slips drily away from the words
& escapes like sly prey into the woods because
the words bravely give chase but they were never cut out for this hunt
& they get lost & hungry
they go hungry like an injured wolf separated from its pack
like a cattle dog lacking order & teenagers not-talking on phones
like groceries that can’t shop for themselves
like the cat settling for tuna
well not like that
like clacking keyboards churning up dry storms
like computer screens adrift
at the mercy of tidal waves of hunters
& peckers & especially delete-ers
like a poet who can’t do anything instead
like the shift key & the alt key
like the fourth beer needs to be the ctrl + alt + delete keys
like delete is a kind of key
they go hungry
like a husband
STEPHANIE L. HARPER
I scratched the first draft of this baby out on the back of a flyer I’d grabbed at random in a cafe, where I was killing time before I needed to pick up my kids from their respective classes (this was just about a week ago). Anyway, you may or may not find it interesting that I later discovered I’d been writing on an advertisement for an employment agency, with the caption, “Looking for a job that makes a difference?”
How’s that for irony?
SLHARPERPOETRY 