Carry the poem with you like a secret ~ Kelli Russell Agodon | Poet of the Week 6.16.24
8 poems & an interview with Two Sylvia Press confounder + Copper Canyon Press poet!
Kelli Russell Agodon is a bi/queer poet and editor from the Pacific Northwest. Her latest book, Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press), was a Finalist in the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize in Poetry. She cofounded Two Sylvias Press and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University's low-res MFA program. She also co-hosts the poetry series "Poems You Need" with Melissa Studdard.
We Are the Only Poets, and Everyone Else is Prose
Today’s prayer is my body pressed
against your body. Emily Dickinson
on the nightstand, still talking to Susan.
Occasionally, I’m the ghost who places
coldness into the left ventricle
of your heart, but I’m also your positive
prognosis even as doctors smoke
cigarettes and scientists say,
They should have sent a poet.
And when I sonnet my body
onto your page and you try to leave
me, I emdash you—see
the beauty in that fine thin line
—a bridge grows between us.
Hold me as the ghost I am—it’s impossible
not to love you—in soft focus, knowing
I’ll be there like that foggy night you
stumbled on the sidewalk, understanding
there is always one streetlight on your way
home that will continue to shine.
“This spontaneous method is my favorite way to write because I carry the poem with me like a secret. You might see me in the coffee aisle, looking as if I'm shopping, but really, I'm working on a poem in my head…
When it comes to writing poems, I often begin with a specific element, like an image, idea, memory, or thought. The two most common ways poems come to me are quite different. One way is that I’ll most likely be in the shower, drying my hair, or doing some boring task and I hear a line in my head or think of a title.
For example, yesterday, I was thinking about how my trip to Santa Fe was canceled because my mother-in-law ended up in the hospital, and I had tickets to Georgia O'Keeffe's home. That thought led me to imagine a parallel world where another version of myself visiting O'Keeffe's home. So I wrote down the line, “In a Parallel Universe, My Other Self Tours Georgia O’Keeffe’s Home” and it kicked off a draft of a poem.
But that’s the key, you know—writing it down! I've had countless lines just float away into the zeitgeist, probably ending up in other poets’ minds.”
Kelli, a beautiful, profound poem. Thank you.