Not Trump SeriesrbdJen DeGregorio, nottrump, poetry

Jen DeGregorio: #NotTrump Series

Not Trump SeriesrbdJen DeGregorio, nottrump, poetry
Jen DeGregorio: #NotTrump Series

Note from My Narcissism

 

I am an ode

to myself. I tan

in my own glow and know

every goodbye is hello. Every

body on the road, a doll

that longs to be held in

my muscular arms, to be stroked

by my right hand, to sit

at my right hand and cares

not what the other is doing,

which I’ll just say is

very important, my work

that it’s doing. It is conducting

the finest symphony

ever composed, the trill

that thrills from my throat

an unknown bird’s ornithologists

would kill for. Like anything rare

I am hard

to believe and I cost

beyond price. To watch

the populace window shop

is my highest joy. See them

rifle through pockets, place

their bets-- deeds to houses, rights

to dubious souls upon death

when all I have made will

be shown as the smoke

from the fireworks

blows, light so bright

it shuts each eye

in its head, forces

my name from all lips

in praise. Praise

for even one chance  

to carry me home. My gilded

cage, its purely decorative

lock I unlatch with my talented beak

and flap through, filling you

up with my song as I go.

Jen DeGregorio's poetry has appeared in Apogee online, The Baltimore Review, The Collagist, The Cossack Review, PANK, Spoon River Poetry Review, Women's Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her writing has won scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and Hunter College in New York, where she received her MFA in creative writing. She teaches writing to undergraduates in New York and New Jersey and, come September, will be a PhD candidate in English/Creative Writing at Binghamton University (State University of New York).

Not Trump Seriesrbdchelsea whitton, nottrump, poetry

Chelsea Whitton: #NotTrump Series

Chelsea Whitton is a southern poet and essayist living in Ridgewood, Queens. Her poems have appeared in various web and print publications, including Sixth Finch, Forklift, Ohio, Bateau, WomenArts Quarterly, Cimarron Review, Ilk and Valley Voices. She hold an MFA from the New School. Read more of her work at www.chelseawhitton.com.

Not Trump Seriesrbdchelsea whitton, nottrump, poetry
Chelsea Whitton: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump Seriesrbdmatthew lippman, nottrump, poetry

Matthew Lippman: #NotTrump Series

Matthew Lippman is the author of four poetry collections—The New Year of Yellow (winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize, Sarabande Books), Monkey Bars, Salami Jew, and American Chew (winner of the Burnside Review of Books Poetry Prize). He is the recipient of many awards including a New York State Fine Arts Grant, and Jerome J. Shestak Poetry Prize from American Poetry Review.

Not Trump Seriesrbdmatthew lippman, nottrump, poetry
Matthew Lippman: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump SeriesrbdAmy Strauss Friedman, nottrump, poetry

Amy Strauss Friedman: #NotTrump Series

Amy Strauss Friedman is the author of the chapbook Gathered Bones are Known to Wander (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). Her poems have appeared in The Rumpus, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Escape Into Life, FLAPPERHOUSE, Red Paint Hill, decomP magazinE, and elsewhere. Amy earned her MA in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University. She was born and raised in Chicago where she taught English at Harper College and at Northwestern’s Center for Talent Development. She recently moved to Denver, Colorado where she teaches poetry to elementary school students. Her work can be found at amystraussfriedman.com.

Not Trump SeriesrbdAmy Strauss Friedman, nottrump, poetry
Amy Strauss Friedman: #NotTrump Series