Poem-A-Day: Beauty Supply by Lee Ann Brown

October 18, 2013 Beauty Supply by Lee Ann Brown     Sheaves of wheat in cement relief  Supply the beauties of Archer Ave. Past the scaffolded brick church spire  We turn on the vacant corner lot Through winds worthy of Hopkins (Gerard M.) New words -- Alexus -- Everything must go "Include everything in poetry" Even the things you think are nothing Like the way the new white snowflake  Decoration waves its wild tentacles       against the high blue sky     loop and angle Black graffiti palimpsests the     yellow official sign of Danger in bus stairwell She stares at me unsmiling     with cold Northface Notices me writing but says nothing     with her eye The corner lot I used to chart or cheat in its 'vacancies' Configures new blown trash and walk through paths  Subjected to random search Has grown a mouth of gravel Constructed in a cone Surrounded by temporary fence     Of blue nailed board  Now on Roti Avenue Cutlery & Wang Quai Amalgam of chairs, Jamaica Island Center         Copyright © 2013 by Lee Ann Brown. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "'Beauty Supply' is a poem written as an accumulation of commutes to the school I teach at in Queens. The poem weaves interior thoughts, with exterior, experiential visuals through the window of a moving bus. Foregrounded is a language-sensitive tendency to 'sign-reading mode,' filtering real phrases flashing by, such as 'Beauty Supply' on a shop which sells wholesale to salons, yet transformed. Hungry for beauty in an urban landscape, the eye and the mind creates it, collage style, all in a whirlwind of motion and wind, with echoes of recent readings and overhearings mixed with the whirling signs and sights of Jamaica Center."   --Lee Ann Brown Most Recent Book by Brown Crowns of Charlotte (Carolina Wren Press, 2013)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Lee Ann Brown's most recent collections of poetry are Crowns of Charlotte (Carolina Wren Press, 2013) and In the Laurels, Caught (Fence Books, 2013). Brown teaches poetry at St. John's University and lives in New York City. She will be on a panel titled "The Poetic Impulse" at the Academy's Poets Forum in New York City, October 24-26.     Related Poems It's obvious by Greg Hewett The Part of the Bee's Body Embedded in the Flesh by Carol Frost Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Anne Sexton __________________________ Join us at the Poets Forum in NYC, October 24-26 Purchase Tickets       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.

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