Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s preview coverage of Miami Book Fair (MBF) 2022! The poets whose work you’ll be reading every weekday from October 15 through November 15 are just a few of the many authors from around the world participating in this year’s MBF, the nation’s largest gathering of writers and readers of all ages. They all look forward to sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas both in person and online. Between November 13-20, new poet conversations and readings will be launched and available for free on miamibookfaironline.com (in addition to other content). For more information, visit the website and follow MBF on Instagram and Twitter at @miamibookfair and use the hashtag #miamibookfair2022.
Eden each morning as this place wakes to praise cobwebs crocheted into the grass all foliage wet with the beads of birth I come feet naked to the sun my children’s footsteps splashing green seduce my loins sweeter than lust another life another life The condom garlands on the ground proclaim the irony at me but they are dead—this garden’s calm chinoiserie contains no passions And I smile back for the tight buds the lizard’s egg bird’s nest the glow behind the hill are things about to be It’s time this garden bred something beyond the tremors of an undergraduate lust, well time we planted something here deep as a tomb, some seed intent on growing. I call my children to my knees and bless their new lives one by one. A small breeze carries summonses. We come.
Pamela Mordecai calls literature "song and story." A widow, Martin having recently departed, she is the mother of three and grandmother of one. She writes for a living (glory be to God the Mother!), entertaining both young and old this way, and has published nine collections of poetry, most recently A Fierce Green Place: New and Selected Poems (New Directions) and de book of Joseph (Mawenzi House), both out this year.
This poem first appeared with Sandberry Press and is now collected in A Fierce Green Place: New and Selected Poems (New Directions, 2022). The author grants permission.
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