#tamara jobe

[lifeinpoetry]

So it is down to this: who waits, who goes on with it, / who walks forward into shadow without looking back.

Tamara Jobe, from “Woman,” Hag

[cruxymox]

received today.... yessssssss.

@thewrittenpoet @wearehalfmystic

[lifeinpoetry]

I have bruised my being for the world.

Tamara Jobe, from “Silence,” Hag

[lifeinpoetry]

     when the day breaks & it tastes of     tangerines bleeding hearts an untouched honeysuckle a land purified by fire.       all that lives here is the sun and lines upon lines of aspen. 

when a river finds its way after eons of struggle.      petrified shells     fish losing its scales trees refusing to open. 

    when she says to me, jump, feet first. you don’t need permission to live.

— Tamara Jobe, from “God(dess),” Hag

[lifeinpoetry]

I thumb the edges of you,              your grass-mouth,              your numb sky,                           plucked through with stars. 

— Tamara Jobe, from “Figs,” Hag

[lifeinpoetry]

What is there left to say?                            What have I left to destroy?               If this is all I can bear                            then I’ll look up at the blue swell of sky, close this body, this glittering body that is mine,               breathe again. Ask to sleep.

— Tamara Jobe, from “Conjugal,” Hag

[lifeinpoetry]

Hungry is the way I speak. The accent of my mother’s               mother, thinking growing up meant better. Better meant this destiny: fulfilling a purpose               with eyes. Scars. Hands. Tongue on skin,               safe but for the back of me.

— Tamara Jobe, from “Easy,” Hag

[lifeinpoetry]

I curse your sweet things. Bite my tongue numb. I like to roll in mire because it’s easier than the alternative: peeling myself from you like an old skin, and then: soft, pink, & blank. Telling myself  it’s good.

— Tamara Jobe, from “Heathen,” Hag