I Was Minor by Olena Kalytiak Davis

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 31, 2016   I Was Minor   Olena Kalytiak Davis

In this life, I was very minor.   I was a minor lover. There was maybe a day, a night or two, when I was on.   I was, would have been, a minor daughter, had my parents lived.   I was a minor runner. I was a minor thinker. In the middle distance, not too fast.   I was a minor mother: only two, and sometimes, I was mean to them.   I was a minor beauty. I was a minor Buddhist. There was a certain symmetry, but it, too, was minor.   My poems were not major enough to even make me a “minor poet,”   but I did sit here instead of getting up, getting the gun, loading it.   Counting, killing myself.            Copyright © 2016 Olena Kalytiak Davis. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem is pretty major on clarity. I guess right this second I like how, perhaps in fidelity to its claims, it doesn’t scan. Or does it?” —Olena Kalytiak Davis   Olena Kalytiak Davis is the author of The Poem She Didn’t Write and Other Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2014). She practices law and lives in Anchorage, Alaska. Poetry by Davis   The Poem She Didn't Write and Other Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2014) "Imaginary Rope" by C. D. Wright "Human Atlas" by Marianne Boruch "Four Poems for Robin" by Gary Snyder Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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