In the dark we crush by Julia Cohen

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend December 12, 2014   In the dark we crush   Julia Cohen

crab apples for the sound of it. Light cannot be bitter. The backyard licks us.   Blue like kindling, the fox we caught with a shoebox. Your shirt is a constellation   in the tent of recovery. If you release the hand you relax the animal. Bookshelves hold up   the moon. I sweep your fur into a feeling. I put you into my memories on purpose.   Moss smuggles stars into your cheeks. Inside your body’s future, bravery turns to pulp.   The flashlight pendulum. Your face sounds like that record player. Electric & spinning.   Let’s grow old together. Don’t be scared of Gertrude Stein. Be brave.            Copyright © 2014 by Julia Cohen. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Maybe this is a love poem that tries to navigate how to bring someone into your life that hasn’t been a part of your complex past. Maybe it’s a poem that tries to make a home outside of the typical domestic space, somewhere between the backyard and the forest. It is a poem that takes a risk in asking you to collaborate in being consciously open to uncertainty.” —Julia Cohen   Julia Cohen is the author of I Was Not Born (Noemi Press, 2014). She teaches at Wright College and lives in Chicago, Illinois. Most Recent Book by Cohen   I Was Not Born (Noemi Press, 2014) "poem I wrote sitting across the table from you" by Kevin Varrone "Darling, You Are the World’s Fresh Ornament" by Laura Cronk "Dependants" by Paul Farley Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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