Sweet things

A poem

My poem “Sweet Things” was just published in the inaugural issue of Pictura, a lovely new journal with some amazing work. “Sweet Things” was inspired by Ross Gay’s poem “Sorrow is not my name.” I wrote it during the pandemic, in 2021, when we were still in the middle of it and locked down. It was hard to see the sweet things, and there was so much heartache in the world that I wondered whether they even mattered.

I’ve come down on the side of letting the sweet things in. Life is both the salty tears and all those “two million naturally occurring sweet things.” To discard the good because there’s so much bad discounts the life I’ve worked for and been given, not to mention the toll on my mental health and the wellbeing of those around me.

Pictura also offered authors the opportunity to answer questions. You can read my interview here.

Thank you so much for your support.

This week I want to recommend

Dick Whyte

’s

Forgotten Poets

. He publishes those poets that have been forgotten, lost to time, obscurity, unappreciated, and brings them back to life. He discovers gems and then he writes a poem in conversation with the no-longer-forgotten poems he’s just brought back to life.