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Part 4 Contributors

 

Tony Barnstone
Willis Barnstone
Ellen Bass
Christopher Buckley
Neeli Cherkovski
Boris Dralyuk
Alicia Elkort
Mary Fitzpatrick
Michael C. Ford
Kate Gale
Frank X. Gaspar
Dana Gioia
Shotsie Gorman
S.A. Griffin
Donna Hilbert
Brenda Hillman
Glenna Luschei
Phoebe MacAdams
devorah major
Clive Matson
K. Silem Mohammad
Rusty Morrison
Harry Northup
Holly Prado Northup - In Memoriam
Cathie Sandstrom
Shelley Scott - In Memoriam
Daniel Shapiro
Mike Sonksen
Pam Ward
Sholeh Wolpe
Gary Young
Mariano Zaro


Part 1 Contributors

Rae Armantrout
Bart Edelman
David Garyan
Suzanne Lummis
Glenna Luschei
Bill Mohr
D. A. Powell
Amy Uyematsu
Paul Vangelisti
Charles Harper Webb
Bruce Willard
Gail Wronsky

Part 2 Contributors

Elena Karina Byrne
liz gonzález
Grant Hier
Lois P. Jones
Ron Koertge
Glenna Luschei
Rooja Mohassessy
Susan Rogers
Patty Seyburn
Maw Shein Win
Kim Shuck
Lynne Thompson
Carine Topal
Cecilia Woloch

Part 3 Contributors

Michelle Bitting
Laurel Ann Bogen
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Lucille Lang Day
Corrinne Clegg Hales
Marsha De La O
Charles Jensen
Eloise Klein Healy
Glenna Luschei
Clint Margrave
Henry Morro
Alexis Rhone Fancher
Phil Taggart
David L. Ulin
Jonathan Yungkans
Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis

Part 5 Contributors

Millicent Borges Accardi
Kim Addonizio
Marjorie R. Becker
Jacqueline Berger
John Brandi
James Cagney
Carol Moldaw
Kosrof Chantikian
Brendan Constantine
James Cushing
Kim Dower
David Garyan
Valentina Gnup
Troy Jollimore
Judy Juanita
Paul Lieber
Rick Lupert
Glenna Luschei
Sarah Maclay
Jim Natal
Judy Pacht
Connie Post
Jeremy Radin
Luis J. Rodriguez
Gary Soto
Cole Swensen
Arthur Sze
Charles Upton
Scott Wannberg (In Memoriam)


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Click to enlarge picture Sholeh Wolpe;
Sholeh Wolpé
Photo Credit: Sophie Kandaouroff
Californian Poets Part 4: Four beads from Sholeh Wolpé’s memoir in verse, Abacus of Loos forthcoming in March 2022 from the University of Arkansas Press
by
Sholeh Wolpé


 

 



Bead 1

I sit at this kitchen table in Los Angeles and take account:
There is my childhood house becoming smoke, friends
scattered like storm-blown dandelion seeds, my mother
tongue ripped blue from my throat.

See the man I used to call husband sinking into the twin
lungs of an ice beast, a love murdered by his own pallid
hands;
see vein shades of lovers who came and went, a homeland
community in jail, my cousin’s husband graying on the
run, my school principal and his wife hanging from beryl
ropes.

          That we choose the color
          of our loss, like a blue
          sash draped across
          mourners’ black. That
          eyes follow blind
          towards the cobalt moon,
          will slant us over and
          down, crooked toward
          mud on our graves.

چشم من آبی روی من آبی موی من آبی خون من آبی فکر من آبی روح من آبی آه من آبی دست من آبی خون من آبی

جای من آبی زبان من آبی چشم من آبی روی من آبی فکر من آبی روح من آبی موی من آبی فکر من آبی روی من آبی

موی من آبی خون من آبی چشم من آبی روح من آبی آه من آبی دست من آبی موی من آبی جای من آبی زبان من آبی

چشم من آبی روی من آبی فکر من آبی روح من آبی خون من آبی روح من آبی روی من آبی موی من آبی خون من

آبی فکر من آبی چشم من آبی آه من آبی دست من آبی زبان من آبی جای من آبی موی من آبی چشم من آبی روی من

آبی فکر من آبی روح من آبی خون من آبی آه من آبی روی من آبی موی من آبی خون من آبی فکر من آبی روح من

آبی چشم من آبی دست من آبی جای من آبی زبان من آبی چشم من آبی روی من آبی فکر من آبی روح من آبی موی

من آبی خون من آبی روی من آبی چشم من آبی فکر من آبی خون من آبی موی من آبی روح من آبی آه من آبی دست





Bead 2

Loss is a
language we all
speak well,
a body moan that echoes
between ribs, the downfall
that becomes windfall.





Bead 3

Granddaddy takes me and my brothers out every Friday to
a circus filled with tigers, elephants, horses, and shirtless
men in glittering tights. There are women tinier than my
child’s body, animals bigger than my room. It is roaring
fun until the giant with four faces. My arms begin to shake.
Shivers ripple to the tips of my fingers. Granddaddy puts a
hand on my shoulder, says: It’s just a mask on his head.

            But I know better
            because anything that’s
            loved— a delicious
            granddaddy day
            in that circus in Tehran,
            sticky cotton candy melting
            its pink song into my mouth,
            my brothers, each naughty, toothy with joy—
            is always burning
            toward a future not yet
            come, fireworks in my
            brain,
            hot sparks welded to each memory.





Bead 4

A painted cardboard car
gives birth to
clown after clown.
Like lovers: the soldier, the thief, the cheater, the psycho lawyer.