Sort of Coping by Farrah Field

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 5, 2015   Sort of Coping   Farrah Field

Why is anyone in the world so terrible. Real catastrophe and catastrophizing. If we only knew when it was going to happen.   I saw you put your hands on the floor. Intimacy without disturbances. The scope here of memorization, planets. The history of children   sitting still. You are so cute in all your facebook photos. When you moved to Portland I forgot we used to call you   Tumbleweed Tex. All those barking dogs, feathered hair. We have something in common I never mention. I wish   I’d written it down and folded it into one of your piles saying I want to read every one of these books! Do you think   you’ll have read them all before the end of time. Did you go in to see her when she was dead. Maybe you already knew.            Copyright © 2015 by Farrah Field. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘Sort of Coping’ came out of a writing assignment Kate Schapira, poet and author of The Soft Place, assigned to our audience at Berl’s, a poetry-only bookstore in Brooklyn that I co-run with my partner, poet Jared White. I was trying to compose a letter to Uriah Heep, David Copperfield’s antagonist, perhaps trying to address his terribleness, yet realizing what we have in common is loss.” —Farrah Field   Farrah Field is the author of Wolf and Pilot (Four Way Books, 2011). She lives in Brooklyn where she is also the co-owner of Berl’s Poetry Shop. Most Recent Book by Field   Wolf and Pilot (Four Way Books, 2011) "Room in Antwerp" by Laure-Anne Bosselaar "Heavy Summer Rain" by Jane Kenyon "Token Loss" by Kay Ryan Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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