"Sea Sonnet: Dakar, 2018" by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 1, 2018   Sea Sonnet: Dakar, 2018   Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

I begged for tongues the way that I was taught—: hanala si ke andana—: whispered close. Was this the Holy Spirit that I sought?—: Bashful tongue drawing silence from my throat. Trinity lesson, clicked behind my teeth, Welling like memory I stood to receive There at the altar. Blood that flowed beneath Scripture an ocean gave me to believe. Atlantic, how you sing to me my own! Rhythm of roar and stillness, treasured still, Hushed in my marrow ] shut up in my bones! [ Less like a fire than crash and salt of will Preserving as the sunset breathes the sky, Parsing the wave's lip pressed into a sigh....              Copyright © 2018 Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Inspired by a recent trip to Senegal and by my Pentecostal upbringing in Daytona Beach, Florida, 'Sea Sonnet: Dakar, 2018' is meant to evoke the tide, going out and returning like memory. I'm interested in the ways ritual and meaning travel, in language as vehicle. The poem attempts a written glossolalia, and includes a snippet of a gospel song I grew up singing in church, a section I remember for its syncopated rhythm. The poem is intended to be read both down the page and back up again." —Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon   Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of ] Open Interval [ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009). She is an associate professor of English at Cornell University and lives in Ithaca, New York. Poetry by Van Clief-Stefanon   ] Open Interval [ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) "Hecuba on the Shores of Da Nang, 1965" by Deborah Paredez "Ficus Carica Sonnet" by Hoa Nguyen "far memory" by Lucille Clifton August Guest Editor: Evie Shockley   Thanks to Evie Shockley, author of semiautomatic (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shockley 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 Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning.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

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