"Pathetic Fallacy" by Emilia Phillips

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 31, 2017   Pathetic Fallacy   Emilia Phillips

the sap that I am springtime               makes me want to reread Virgil's   Georgics while eating cacio               e pepe with fresh-shelled   peas this morning over coffee I               watched a video of spinach   leaves washed of their cellular               information and bathed in stem   cells until they became miniature               hearts vascular hopes capable   of want to roll down a hill               of clover to cold-spoon chrysanthemum   gelato or to stop whenever               their phones autocorrect gps   to god the sublime is a suspension               of disbelief the earth has gotten   sentimental this late in the game               with its smells of gasoline   rosemary and woodsmoke the Rorschach               of vitiligo on my eyes mouth   and throat the ongoing               argument between self   and selfhood the recognition               of the storm the howling   wind I wish I could scream               into someone else's rain            Copyright © 2017 Emilia Phillips. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "'Pathetic Fallacy' was written in a great, manic burst of creativity back in the spring, when the temperatures started to rise and I felt a great sense of relief, something close to joy. But I'm suspicious of joy. And I think poems are generally suspicious of joy too." —Emilia Phillips   Emilia Phillips is the author of Groundspeed (University of Akron Press, 2016). She teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Poetry by Phillips   Groundspeed (University of Akron Press, 2016) "The Garden of Eden" by Sandra Simonds "Elegy in Joy [excerpt]" by Muriel Rukeyser "Elegy Composed in the New York Botanical Garden" by Eugenia Leigh Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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