"Say the Word" by Sandra Beasley

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend Support Poem-a-Day January 10, 2020   Say the Word   Sandra Beasley

To be apart, I'm told. To be asunder. To be a privative, negative, reversing force. To be reached only by oaths and curses. To have black sheep sacrificed in my name because I'm a god, yes, as we are all gods on occasion. To be bodied as I am bodied. To be rich of earth, which is to be chronically chthonic. To be where the gems are— underground. To be Dīs. To be Dīs. To be Dīs. To reject any pickaxe disguised as love.            Copyright © 2020 by Sandra Beasley. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 10, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets. About this Poem   "Before there was Hades, there was the Roman god Dīs Pater. My work has always engaged mythologies and origin stories, but here I'm also inspired by my community of dis kin. My forthcoming collection, Made to Explode, includes poems that embrace a social model of disability rather than a medical model. In other words—a cure is not always the goal, and the problem often lies not in our disabilities, but in the failure of those around us to accommodate and include. In 2016, activist and writer Lawrence Carter-Long launched a campaign to reclaim 'disabled' as an identity, versus 'special' or 'different' or any other euphemism." —Sandra Beasley   Sandra Beasley is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Count the Waves (W.W. Norton & Company, 2015), and a memoir. She lives in Washington, D.C. Poetry by Beasley   Count the Waves  (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015) "Summoning the Body That Is Mine When I Shut My Eyes" by Jenny Johnson "13 Questions for the Next Economy" by Susan Briante "Nondisabled Demands" by Jillian Weise January Guest Editor: Meg Day   Thanks to Meg Day, author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A about Day's curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year. A culture break, a source of daily renewal...   If reading Poem-a-Day has become a meaningful part of your day, please consider supporting this free series with a donation. Your gift makes publishing Poem-a-Day 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   Unsubscribe here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038