"Feelings are Rooms" by Roberto Tejada

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend Support Poem-a-Day November 6, 2019   Feelings are Rooms   Roberto Tejada

After Kabir Carter, Bard College, 26 June 2018 Feeling knives the microphone to cauterize flesh        it amplifies    Crackles the abrasive metal fabric   Blowtorches feedback hold and heel   Throttles and pauses the cord-pull   Lulls to lunge in transmission      back seat pocket   Alones the sound crowd   Accumulates the solitary intention of hooded jacket front punch   Zippers the match stick ignite   Handcuffs the thick slide probe with plastic tie   Zones between foot and huddle   Shrills the retreat from acted upon          or was it repeat   Tools the self animation  Insomuch as the metal scrim   On denim is able to inhale   Skin-howl    blister   swipe   Caresses and so abrogates as to grip therefore   Larynxes stride and light step   Dry touch enveloping to self anoint   Tag      identify     anatomy     pulse   Whether pleasure or pain              it  collapses   Second human shell the cosmos   Automaton guest or X   Feeling that ligaments today in predation   It houses       it afflicts         it encircles            Copyright © 2019 by Roberto Tejada. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 6, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About this Poem   "In work that inspires my own, sound artist Kabir Carter enlivens architectural space by means of gestures and amplified acoustics ('Under-performances'), his body interacting with microphone, mixer, and loudspeaker. 'Feelings Are Rooms' was the title given to Carter's yearlong residency at ISSUE Project Room. During his 2018 performance at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, I drafted language that would later give voice to brutal forms of sonic intimacy, to the limits of amplitude, and to my unlearning… but also to a refutation of the present as a preordained horizon." —Roberto Tejada   Roberto Tejada is the author of Still Nowhere in an Empty Vastness (Noemi Press, 2019). He is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor at the University of Houston, where he serves as faculty in Creative Writing and Art History. Poetry by Tejada   Still Nowhere in an Empty Vastness (Noemi Press, 2019) "The Red Poppy" by Louise Glück "Phlebotomy, as Told by the Blood" by torrin a. greathouse "The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart" by Deborah Digges November Guest Editor: Sherwin Bitsui   Thanks to Sherwin Bitsui, author of Dissolve (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Bitsui about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year.  A culture break, a source of daily renewal...   If reading Poem-a-Day has become a meaningful part of your day, please consider supporting this free series with a donation. Your gift makes publishing Poem-a-Day possible. 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   Unsubscribe here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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