Freedom to Redress Grievances: "Now What" by Solmaz Sharif

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend March 30, 2019   Now What   Solmaz Sharif

And so I sat at a tall table in an Ohio hotel, eating delivery: cheese bread   with garlic butter, only it was not butter, but partially hydrogenated soy bean oil   and regular soybean oil and it came in a little tub like creamer that's also not dairy.   America in 2019 means a poem will have to contain dairy that is, in fact,   not dairy. On Instagram: a man has bought a ten foot by four foot photo of a bridge he lives   beside, bridge he can see just outside his window, window which serves as a ten foot by four foot frame.   My materialist mind, I can't shake it. Within a perfect little tub of garlic butter,   a relief of workers, of sickles, fields of soy. We were tanners pushed to the edge of the city   once, by the stench, the bubble of vats of flesh and loosening skin, back when the city pulled, leather   bucket by leather bucket, its own water from wells. Then we worked the cafeterias at the   petroleum offices of the British. Then, revolution—   Simple.            Copyright © 2019 by Solmaz Sharif. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 30, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.     Watch Solmaz Sharif reading today's Poem-a-Day "Now What," as part of What Is It, Then, Between Us: Poetry & Democracy. About This Poem   "'Now what' is a habitual text message I send to friends at various times in the day. Malaise. Helplessness. In writing this, I'm thinking about how redress of grievance does not happen without collective pressure behind it; that this codified democratic right, if left to its own devices, can be a self-laundering system for the U.S.; and how there is a sometimes seemingly invisible restriction placed upon our speech. So, syllabics: order for the sake of order. So, absence: the invitation to write a new line ourselves." —Solmaz Sharif   Solmaz Sharif is the author of LOOK (Graywolf Press, 2016), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry. A National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient, she is a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University and lives in California. Photo Credit: Arash Saedinia Poetry by Sharif   LOOK (Graywolf Press, 2016) New Anthology: Curated by Solmaz Sharif   Read this anthology of poems about the Freedom to Redress Grievances, curated by Solmaz Sharif and featuring poetry by Susan Briante, Emily Dickinson, Robert Hayden, and Marwa Helal, among others. Learn More About the Freedom to Redress Grievances   Read about the National Constitution Center, the first and only institution in America established by Congress to "disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis in order to increase the awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people." Visit the website of the Transgender Law Center, the largest trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people.   What Is It, Then, Between Us?   Throughout March, poetry organizations in eleven cities that are a part of a national Poetry Coalition will offer programs on the theme of Poetry & Democracy. On Saturdays this month, Poem-a-Day will be inspired by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Share This Poem: #PoetryandDemocracy Find More Poems: Browse our Collection of +9,000 Poems Support Poem-a-Day: Make a Monthly Donation 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