Manic Panic by Marisa Crawford

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 24, 2014   Manic Panic   Marisa Crawford

Live fast and dye your hair. That’s what I wrote on my Converse in 8th grade. Maybe it was the way the feeling pulled me like a girl pulling a ponytail. Maybe I didn’t get the job cause of the polka dots. Maybe I don’t care cause of the wave. Today I’m blue. Tomorrow I could be anywhere. All these pop songs about dying young like it’s gonna be so epic. The only difference between 8th grade and now is the blowing up the use of color & perspective. Things that are with you when you wake up & you feel like someone’s there. Same rainbows under her eyes clouds floating in the air.            Copyright © 2014 by Marisa Crawford. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “When I wrote ‘Manic Panic,’ I was thinking about mass violence, about being a kid versus being an adult, about our culture’s obsession with staying young forever contrasted with the reality of dying young in some form of violence or tragedy. There’s so much focus all around us on the power and allure of youth, on ‘stopping aging,’ for women in particular, but this poem is about what happens to that power as you keep on living.” —Marisa Crawford   Marisa Crawford is the author of The Haunted House (Switchback Books, 2010). She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Most Recent Book by Crawford   The Haunted House (Switchback Books, 2010) "Demeter in Paris" by Meghan O'Rourke "Another Country" by Ryan Teitman "Fifteen, Maybe Sixteen Things to Worry About" by Judith Viorst Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. 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