#clint smith

[havingapoemwithyou]

For the doctor’s records by Clint Smith

[liberalsarecool]

Raising children to be kind, thoughtful, and empathetic is impossible in MAGA world.

Conservatives want their children to obey, not think. The paternalism is so toxic.

Conservatives see a rapist traitor try to smear the Obamas and they feel connected to Trump.

His racism is their racism. Trump's abuse of children is their inability to raise their children to be kind, thoughful, and empathetic.

[affixjoy]

I can’t stop thinking about this poem today.

[wafflepig13]

I want poetry recs! Something for beginners please :D I have no idea what I'm looking at.

hii :D i'm just gonna recommend some of my personal favorite poets. poetry is such a major part of life, so i hope you enjoy. and believe it or not this is me narrowing down my list lol. anything by these poets is great.

tracy k. smith: my favorite poet! i'd recommend reading her collection life on mars. it's one of my favorite collections ever and a great beginnner. it's a lovely elegy for her father. it's a very intimate collection grappling with humanity's relative insignificance, mortality, love, illness, and religion as she writes through her grief. she also weaves in lots of pop culture references.

sonia sanchez: an all time great. i think this article serves as a great introduction to her work.

mary oliver: one of my favorite collections ever is devotions. a lot of her poems focus on nature and spirituality.

june jordan: i think this article is good starting point. her work is about race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism. and she prioritized writing in, celebrating, and representing AAVE in her work.

pablo neruda: i'd recommend reading the essential neruda. it's bilingual, so it includes both the original Spanish text alongside English translations.

joy harjo: i'd start with how we became human. she explores the foundations of humanity and what it can mean to be indigenous.

patricia smith: i am begging you to watch videos of her perform her poetry. she is such a phenomenal spoken word performer. i'd recommend reading incendiary art. it's centered around emmett till and is a response to the increasing violence against Black people in America. it has a particular focus mothers' grief as well. it is phenomenal and very well and cleverly crafted.

seamus heaney: i'd start with either his first collection called death of a naturalist or 100 poems, which is a posthumous collection put together by his family. the majority of his poetry focuses on rural Northern Ireland, political violence, and memory.

clint smith: i'd start with the collection counting descent. it's a coming of age collection about Black identity, lineage, and community. he also has several great ted talks.

if you don't already know about the poetry foundation, i really recommend checking it out! it's free, and they've got such a wide collection of poems, articles, essays, learning prompts, etc, which you can search through by topic and themes.

and please feel free reach out in dms!! i can get more specific about descriptions of certain poets (i just didn't want to make this post too long lmao) and if there's any specific topics you want recs for, i can be more in depth lol! or if you just want to chat more about poetry!!! yippee!!

[apocryphics]

[marimuntanya]

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A post shared by Drew Jackson (@d.jacksonpoetics)

Cartography by Clint Smith

[theenlightenedoutlaw]

Train like your life depends on it… because it does.

[thewholelemon]

Six Sentence Sunday

Thank you for the tags @monbons and @mooncello! And for the posts I missed over the past week--I'm still trying to catch up.

Thank you also for your kindness on my last post where I was pretty sad; even if I didn't respond directly to you, your nice words carried me through the week and made me feel a lot less alone. <3

I'm avoiding everything we're supposed to share today and giving you a poem instead, that I randomly came across someone reading and that eased me thru the week--that and tags are below the cut.

For the Hardest Days

Clint Smith

Some evenings, after days when the world feels like it has poured all of its despair onto me, when I am awash with burdens that rests atop my body like a burlap of jostling shadows, I find a place to watch the sun set. I dig my feet into a soil that has rebirthed itself a million times over. I listen to the sound of leaves as they decide whether or not it is time to descend from their branches. It is hard to describe the comfort one feels in sitting with something you trust will always be there, something you can count on to remain familiar when all else seems awry. How remarkable it is to know that so many have watched the same sun set before you. How the wind can carry pollen and drop it somewhere it has never been. How the leaves have always become the soil that then become the leaves again. How maybe we are not so different from the leaves. How maybe we are also always being reborn to be something more than we once were. How maybe that's what waking up each morning is. A reminder that we are born of the same atoms as every plant and bird and mountain and ocean around us.

From Counting Descent Write Bloody Publishing, 2016.

Hope you get to sit with something that you can count on to remain familiar this week, and share if you feel like it:

@hushed-chorus @raenestee @facewithoutheart @bookish-bogwitch @emeryhall

@artsyunderstudy @cutestkilla @shrekgogurt @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @ivelovedhimthroughworse

@onepintobean @martsonmars @brilla-brilla-estrellita @technetiumai @ileadacharmedlife

@alleycat0306 @palimpsessed @youarenevertooold @iamamythologicalcreature @rimeswithpurple

@orange-peony @prettygoododds @blackberrysummerblog @yellobb @run-for-chamo-miles

@theearlgreymage @ic3-que3n @cattocavo @theimpossibledemon @best--dress

@katatsumuli @melodysmash @nightimedreamersworld @supercutedinosaurs @nausikaaa

@valeffelees @dohrnaira @aristocratic-otter @goblindad-emoshit @noblecorgi

@alexalexinii @whatevertheweather @roomwithanopenfire @drowninginships @cosmicalart

@thehoneyedhufflepuff @skeedelvee @arthurkko