"On Anger" by Rage Hezekiah

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 1, 2019   On Anger   Rage Hezekiah

My white therapist calls it my edge, I hear Angry Black Woman. She says, Strength of Willful Negative Focus. She says, Acerbic Intellectual Temperament. I copy her words onto an index card. She wants an origin story, a stranger with his hand inside me, or worse. I'm without linear narrative and cannot sate her. We perform rituals on her living room floor. I burn letters brimming with resentments, watch the paper ember in the fireplace, admit I don't want to let this go. What if anger, my armor, is embedded in the marrow of who I am. Who can I learn to be without it? Wherever you go, there you are. She asks what I will lose if I surrender, I imagine a gutted fish, silvery skin gleaming, emptied of itself—            Copyright © 2019 Rage Hezekiah. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "For years I've devoted time in therapy to the task of unpacking my anger. Last summer before I left for a writing retreat, my therapist urged me to do some writing about letting go. Bringing this poem to life helped me better identify the fear of surrender and the ways my anger serves me. Poetry continues to be a healthy way for me to bring my anger to the page and I'm grateful for the healing power of this act." —Rage Hezekiah   Rage Hezekiah is the author of the forthcoming collections Stray Harbor, with Finishing Line Press, and Unslakable, with Paper Nautilus, both to be published in 2019. She works as an international student advisor at Bennington College and lives in North Adams, Massachusetts. Photo Credit: Sarah Newman "say it with your whole black mouth" by Danez Smith "Portrait of My Father as a Young Black Man" by Sjohnna McCray "Skit: Sun Ra Welcomes the Fallen" by Ruth Ellen Kocher February Guest Editor: Clint Smith   Thanks to Clint Smith, author of Counting Descent (Write Bloody Publishing, 2016), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Smith about their curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. 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