so you know

April is National Poetry Month. This should explain why I've been posting so many poems lately. This and the fact that I'm working on a new project that is making me alternately giddy and despondent. This is why I am up wrestling with my writing at 2 am. Anyhow, here are two sections from Patricia Smith's poem "Tankas." These excerpts are from her amazing book about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans called Blood Dazzler.


I have three children,
but only two arms. He falls
and barely splashes,
that's how incredibly light
he is--was. How death whispers.


I found my sister
whirling in the peppered blue,
my father under rock,
and then myself, fingering
the hard barrell of a gun.


I believe in the necessity of poetry. Call me a fool, but I think we need poetry to understand our humanity, and I think that it enables us to believe in something beyond our humanity. I guess this also means that you can call me delirious and sleep deprived. Oh well. I'll stand by this in the morning.