from "We Do the Polis" by David Buuck

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 21, 2014   from “We Do the Polis”   David Buuck

Pent up in a narrow   compass and shortened   on every side by the neigh-   borhood of walls   These veterans of future wars   handing out the PTSD   brieflets before   the mess to come   *   Were verbing swerved   and swayed into sieves   maneuvering toward   fissures in the line   Swallowed the scare quotes   and choked on what hung there   in the air around me   stripped of that security   *   A field of intensities   pulse through a set   of others coaligned   in throng song   What poetry is this   happening too fast   to count the syllables   in each throat’s retort            Copyright © 2014 by David Buuck. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This excerpt is from a book about Occupy Oakland and related political struggles. It attempts to find forms of representation adequate to the social and affective contents of the historical conjunctures that have sprung up in Oakland, California, and elsewhere over the last few years.” —David Buuck   David Buuck is, along with Juliana Spahr, the coauthor of An Army of Lovers (City Lights Books, 2013). He lives in Oakland, California. Most Recent Book by Buuck   An Army of Lovers (City Lights Books, 2013) "i sing of Olaf glad and big" by E. E. Cummings "Praise Song for the Day" by Elizabeth Alexander "How We Did It" by Muriel Rukeyser Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038