March 2021 – Princeton Writes

A Poem for to you: It Doesn’t Take Much

admin2021-01-27T15:12:44-05:00

It Doesn't Take Much Margaret Gibson On my front door stone, a dead frog. It’s stretched out long, its slender legs a mottled green, its belly cream white, a blossom of blood on the stone. How did it get here? Why did it die? It doesn’t take much to make me see how little I know about the simplest things. I’ll tell you stories, of course— that it was possibly a fisher cat, or more likely was dropped, accidentally by an owl or a startled hawk, or a heron. Or is the dead frog an ambassador sent from the wetland world? [...]

A Poem for to you: It Doesn’t Take Muchadmin2021-01-27T15:12:44-05:00

A Poem for You: I, Too

admin2021-03-22T15:01:47-04:00

I, Too Langston Hughes I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.

A Poem for You: I, Tooadmin2021-03-22T15:01:47-04:00

A Poem for You: The Witch Reads Me My Birthchart

admin2021-01-21T14:11:31-05:00

The Witch Reads Me My Birthchart Eloisa Amezcua she says the planets & stars show that I’m too good at being alone I have unresolved traumas from past lives it is true there were difficulties during my delivery even in the womb I had a bad feeling cord around my throat as I tried to make passage forced into this world or rather out of another by extraction the witch asks if I often feel guilty asks if I try to heal those around me despite finding it difficult to bond with anyone other than myself she wants to know about [...]

A Poem for You: The Witch Reads Me My Birthchartadmin2021-01-21T14:11:31-05:00

A Poem for You: poem where no one is deported

admin2021-01-21T14:05:22-05:00

poem where no one is deported José Olivarez now i like to imagine la migra running into the sock factory where my mom & her friends worked. it was all women who worked there. women who braided each other’s hair during breaks. women who wore rosaries, & never had a hair out of place. women who were ready for cameras or for God, who ended all their sentences with si dios quiere. as in: the day before the immigration raid when the rumor of a raid was passed around like bread & the women made plans, si dios quiere. so when [...]

A Poem for You: poem where no one is deportedadmin2021-01-21T14:05:22-05:00

Book of the Month: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders(2021)

admin2021-10-26T13:09:53-04:00

Book of the Month: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (2021) Critical Evaluation "Saunders lives in the synapses — he looks at all the minute and meaningful decisions that produce a sentence, a paragraph, a convincing character. He offers one of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of the writer that I’ve ever read — that state of heightened alertness, lightning-quick decisions." Sehgal, Perul, "George Saunders Conducts a Cheery Class on Fiction’s Possibilities," The New York Times. January 21, 2021. First Excerpt "Years ago, on [...]

Book of the Month: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders(2021)admin2021-10-26T13:09:53-04:00

A Poem for You: Undoing

admin2021-01-21T13:42:59-05:00

Undoing Khadijah Queen In winter traffic, fog of midday shoves toward our machines—snow eclipses the mountainscapes I drive toward, keeping time against the urge to quit moving. I refuse to not know how not to, wrestling out loud to music, as hovering me—automatic engine, watching miles of sky on the fall—loves such undoing, secretly, adding fuel to what undoes the ozone, the endless nothing manifested as sinkholes under permafrost. Refusal, indecision—an arctic undoing of us, interrupting cascades— icy existences. I cannot drive through.

A Poem for You: Undoingadmin2021-01-21T13:42:59-05:00