FROM THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM
—from Poets Respond
June 26, 2022
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Kaitlyn Spees: “I’m not sure this poem is finished yet, but tossing it out into the void this week feels like doing something, so here I am sending it in anyway.”

FROM THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM
—from Poets Respond
June 26, 2022
__________
Kaitlyn Spees: “I’m not sure this poem is finished yet, but tossing it out into the void this week feels like doing something, so here I am sending it in anyway.”
THE SACRIFICE
—from Rattle #27, Summer 2007
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Michelle Bitting: “I was at a workshop in Florida writing this poem, halfway into it, had conjured Isadora and the sewing element. I decided to do a little extra online research into Ms. Duncan’s life. Lo and behold the father of her children was none other than Eugene Singer, the sewing machine tycoon. Synchronicity: I knew I was on the right track.” (web)
Image: “El Camino de Esmeralda” by Danelle Rivas. “Camouflage” was written by Katie Kemple for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, May 2022, and selected as the Artist’s Choice. (PDF / JPG)
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CAMOUFLAGE
—from Ekphrastic Challenge
May 2022, Artist’s Choice
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Comment from the artist, Danelle Rivas: “Although many of the poems were very evocative, I was was particularly drawn to ‘Camouflage’ because, like the painting, it’s a kaleidoscope, a tumult of words like the articles within the dress. I like the way the words of the objects feel tossed in the poem and the line ‘the hand of it all, kept painting to keep them in frame’ is perfect as it describes the elements hemmed in within the magic frock. There is a true understanding of the whirl of images captured in this poem and the last lines, my effigy enters—swirls leaves, and exits out the window with chopsticks is everything.”
REGULATION
—from Rattle #75, Spring 2022
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Tiffany Wu: “Poetry is a space where I delve into my obsessions with the feminine, the bodily, and the unsaid. In this poem, I try to contend with the intersections of my identity and my cultural upbringing.” (web)
FATHER, DAUGHTER, HUNGRY GHOST
—from Rattle #75, Spring 2022
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E.D. Watson: “Like yoga or meditation, writing poetry is a practice, a discipline to help keep my heart open. It’s also sometimes a form of prayer. Sometimes it’s spell-casting: the right words in the right order make magic. But mostly I write poetry to be understood—first and foremost by myself. Which is to say, I often don’t know how I feel about a thing until I write about it. For me, writing poetry isn’t only about art; it is about naming those weird emotions that live like blind crustaceans in the deep-sea part of me.” (web)
AN AVIARY OF NOTIONS
—from Rattle #26, Winter 2006
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Gary Lemons: “It’s almost a cliché to speak of poetry as a transformational process by which the poet begins, through the writing of the poem, the sacred work of becoming a better human being. I believe this. Each poem is a gift much like each prayer is a lesson. What matters to me is the tissue deep shift I feel each time the words come out in that spare and clean way that tells me I have spoken as truthfully as I can in my own voice. The poem as it is written becomes my window as well as my mirror. I am grateful for this every day.” (web)
WHAT DOES BLACK TASTE LIKE
—from Rattle #75, Spring 2022
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e.a. toles: “The first time I read Emily Dickenson, I realized that there were other worlds in poems. Each line was a mystery building on top of what had come before. I lost myself in that collection of poems. The veil had been pulled back, exposing the subtle ache of humanity. I wanted to live in that aching feeling forever. So I started writing poetry.” (web)