Hola, it’s 3:05 PM! Time to take a cafecito break!
Welcome to Poem in the Afternoon, read by a woman-identifying writer who is attending Miami Book Fair 2023. Enjoy this taste of poetry, sponsored by Miami Book Fair, 305 Cafecito (Miami’s Official Cafecito Break), and SWWIM, with Miami's favorite beverage—a cafecito, of course! We look forward to seeing you at the Fair.
Appearance at Miami Book Fair 2023: Annelyse Gelman, Celebrating the National Book Award Nominees for Poetry: Saturday 11/18, 1:30 pm, Room 8303
Transcript of poem Even the grass was coming up positive Soles beading little match tips of blood A reticular glitch made me saccade like crazy Clouds like anemones, electric fortresses A dandelion fluff might fly in your mouth As you ate a hamburger, the last hamburger That was the year the hurricanes began I hardly swelled but felt her features forming There were airs, waters, places, daughters I pressed my eyes dry like flowers-in-book A tree couldn’t move without tearing its roots There was no other world to bring a child into
Poet and interdisciplinary artist Annelyse Gelman’s most recent book, Vexations (University of Chicago Press, 2023), won the 2022 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets and was longlisted for the National Book Award. Gelman is also the author of the poetry collection Everyone I Love Is a Stranger to Someone (Write Bloody, 2014), and the experimental pop EP About Repulsion (Fonograf Editions, 2019), as well as the artist’s book POOL (Neck Press, 2020). Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Best New Zealand Poetry, Harper’s Magazine, BOMB Magazine, the PEN Poetry Series, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere, and exhibited internationally.
From the book, Vexations (University of Chicago Press, 2023). Permission granted by the author and press.
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