Young Writers Society

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polysyndeton - "is a figure of speech in which coordinating conjunctions—words such as "and," "or," and "but" that join other words or clauses in a sentence into relationships of equal importance—are used several times in close succession, particularly where conjunctions would normally not be present at all."

& sometimes the best poetry is contained in conjunctions & the stray margin note, or the trailing edge of a thought unfinished, or ...

I plan to shamelessly recycle loose-ends from previous poems this April. As well as think through some of the "loose-ends" that have bound together into the tapestry that I am, or my family is, or we are, or... expect lots of "over-use" of ampersands (&) and maybe some faith and ancestry poems thrown into this soup and maybe some string / sewing allusions and we'll see what else...

& good luck in your poetry this month!

& goals
30 poems
1 song
60 comments

& other loose-ends
2022 NaPo - anchors tied to paper boats
2021 NaPo - years lost to locusts
2020 NaPo Pt I - i swear all the birds will live until the end
2020 NaPo Pt II - private reflections; cheap cheap software
2019 NaPo - love and complementary colors
2018 NaPo - heavy dreams & lofty responsibilities
2017 NaPo - a collage of mismatched contemplations
Camp NaPo - 2017 logbook, 2020 logbook, 2021 NaPo Week

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--- 1. i'm not trying to write anything new
--- 2. the tide; always returning
--- 3. intermission | Holy Saturday
--- 4. the tide; always leaving
--- 5. counting stitches
--- 6. you & i
--- 7. photo-keeping
--- 8. falling
--- 9. I am from layovers & standby lists
--- 10. I am from the land with sky stretched so far, you will never see where it ends
--- 11. you won't understand unless you see the stars
--- 12. We are all carved from this same plot of land
--- 13. April is heavy, this year
--- 14. footnotes & other horrible habits
--- 15. you say spring is coming soon, but i am entirely unsure that time is actually real

--- 26. & sometimes the sun is not gentle
--- 27. i know this feels undone, i know this feels like learning to knit in reverse using your heart for a string, but some broken edges of life are not for us to hold | be gentle with yourself, even if the world is not
--- 28. a breath before the postscript
--- 29. what is love except memory unbound
--- 30. & all these loose-ends will bind into a net.

--- 31. the end

i imagine this is how asteroids feel when they collide
all this empty space in the universe – & you just had to be
taking up room in the same place and time as me.

bye this is SUCH a good simile

--- 6. you & i

we have this way of orbiting; you & i
as if we are held a universe-away,
latched by an invisible string - you
tell me one hundred years after you're gone
what it's like to see the sun rising over the harvest prairie
(quiet & steady like the way your father used to sing;
& the same color as autumn-grain; light reincarnated
from the edge of yesterday born into tomorrow)
& i see your poetry written through the stars -
light reincarnated; & i tell you
that i am your daughter, or maybe in the same strange way
that time keeps hold of its strings, & roots, & reflections - i am you -
or maybe we are watching the same sunrise, or maybe
you have already heard me tell you all this before.
we have this way of orbiting; you & i.

---8. falling

there is in this universe perhaps nothing so horrifying as falling in love.
you live your whole life trying to learn who you are,
& protect what you want,
& fly as far as your wings can stretch -
& one day the sky falls
& you realize you want what they want,
you want them, you desperately want them to be happy, to thrive,
to notice every flower and assume it's grown for them,
to be greeted by every sunrise, and for every word to fall gentle on their heart
& you desperately want to know them,
as close as you know yourself,
& you realize you didn't know yourself as well as you thought -
that in fact the sky is infinite - & your wings are stronger than you hoped.
there is nothing in this universe so horrifying as falling in love;
except maybe falling-out-of love
when one day the sky falls
& you with it
& you are only left in this infinite unknowing
with a sky that will not hold you,
with a desperate ache in your chest as if your wings were severed from your body,
& knowing only that you don't know yourself.