In celebration of National Poetry Month, I am inviting several poet friends to join me in my daily endeavor of paying poetic attention to the world. This week I am humbled and thrilled to be sharing the practice with my dear friend TC Tolbert, who was recently named the Poet Laureate of Tucson, AZ. TC often identifies as a trans and genderqueer feminist, collaborator, dancer, and poet but really s/he’s just a human in love with humans doing human things. Find out more and follow him here.
song for the weary:
keep your eyes on the brick.
on the brick upon brick
upon brick upon brick.
which is to say, foundation.
keep your foot on the landing.
less the whole distance
than the simple rise of each step,
concrete. meeting your feet
with an unyielding ‘here’.
photo and poem by katherine ferrier ©2017
come even when I want
to – I was wrong
about witness – one
year I walked
2181 miles in order
to learn better
how to walk –
to carry
emptiness over long
distances is to be enamored
of verisimilitude – God probably
doesn’t give a shit
about masturbation
fantasies – how much I am
like my body – like the man
who raped
me – it is not exactly
that I want to break
my teeth
it is that love becomes
something much less
malleable when I push it around
inside my mouth –
prayers for the resistance 