Spaces by Jenny Johnson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 31, 2017   Spaces   Jenny Johnson

I do not know how she felt, but I keep   thinking of her— screaming out to an empty street.   I had been asleep when I heard a voice   screaming, Help! and frantic, when I opened my door.   I remember her shoulders in the faded towel I found      before she put on my blue sweats and white T-shirt. Call 911   please, she said. When the officer arrived   I said, I found her there after the— But she said,   No, that wasn't what happened.   What must be valued I'm learning,   in clarity and in error, are spaces   where feelings are held.   Here—in a poem? And elsewhere            Copyright © 2017 Jenny Johnson. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I tried to write a poem of witness. Then I decided that, for me, the more honest poem was the one about what a witness can't know about another person's experience." —Jenny Johnson   Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet, forthcoming next month from Sarabande Books. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and in Pacific Lutheran University's low-residency MFA program.   Poetry by Johnson   In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017) "Magdalene—The Seven Devils" by Marie Howe "Memoir" by Vijay Seshadri "To Jamyla Bolden of Ferguson, Missouri" by Naomi Shihab Nye Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. 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