It was a game of bingo
or was it craps
or was it his voice
whispering
my name, softened
and rhythmic
and flowing
arcing
reaching
for a pause
searching
waiting
for the end
14 May 2019
West Sussex
The End
The Sound Words Make
She had a fancy new journal spread out on her desk and a not so fancy fountain pen in her hand. She wrote a sentence or two, nothing special, just to hear the sound of the pen against the paper.
She wasn’t thinking about her words. She was letting her troubled mind be soothed by sound.
Sometimes you think about what’s important and your brain floods you with answers, with hierarchies of answers.
But your heart? Well sometimes your heart just needs to be soothed by the sounds of the small things, like a pen leaving scratches on virgin paper.
Hard Ground, Manic and Endless
I am thinking
about you
looking out my window
watching spring
wishing I hadn’t forgotten
how to laugh
watching you
even now
can still
make me smile
and stumble
reaching
for empty air
that rush
of soft voices
home
Thinking about you
I give up
sit down
on hard ground
let my teeth
slide into soft peach
trying to remember
the sound of you
manic and endless
5 April 2019
My Interview with Jericho Brown
Charlotte interviews Jericho Brown!
“I think social media allows more access to more poems. And I think it allows me the chance to think about the work of poets I love in a more intimate way since I can see them struggling with teaching and writing and raising kids and living in the moments when it happens. Poetry is better when it comes from and happens to real people we can imagine. No oracles!” — Jericho Brown
*****
My interview with poet Jericho Brown is currently online in Barren Magazine. Click here.
Many thanks to Jericho for generously sharing his thoughts and insight and to Jason Ramsey for publishing it in Barren.
In the wood
With each careful footstep
pine needles
the forgotten colours
of a forgotten autumn
softening the sound
she counted
until stars
came out
to greet her
and the moon
to bless her
only then
did she let herself
rest
only then
did she let herself
believe
