"The Voice of God" by Crystal Williams

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 8, 2018   The Voice of God   Crystal Williams

Poem for Aretha Franklin when she opens her mouth our world swells like dawn on the pond when the sun licks the water & the jay garbles, the whole quiet thing coming into tune, the gnats, frogs, the dandelion pollen, the pebbles & leaves & the whole world of us sitting at the throat of the jay dancing in the throat of the jay all of us on the lip of the jay singing doowop, doowop, do.              Copyright © 2018 Crystal Williams. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Many years ago I heard someone describe Aretha Franklin's voice as the voice of God, which was an amazing thing to say. This meditation is my attempt at understanding why that statement struck me as profoundly true. In the end, Aretha's voice is an aggregation of the choruses of the natural world—all of their harmony, complexity, and distinctiveness—and it is as close to the divine as I can imagine." —Crystal Williams   Crystal Williams's most recent book is Detroit as Barn (Lost Horse Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, the Maine Book Award for Poetry, and the Cleveland State Open Book Poetry Competition. She is the associate provost for diversity and inclusion at Boston University. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.   Photo credit: Owen Carey Poetry by Williams   Detroit as Barn (Lost Horse Press, 2014) "Sistas"by Sandra María Esteves "Lift Every Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson "For My Grandmother's Perfume, Norell" by Nickole Brown May Guest Editor: Matthew Shenoda   Thanks to Matthew Shenoda, author of Tahrir Suite: Poems (TriQuarterly Books, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shenoda and our guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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