BLUE
Profile banner
JE
J. Estanislao Lopez
@estanislaopoet.bsky.social
Author of WE BORROWED GENTLENESS (Alice James Books). Link: www.alicejamesbooks.org/bookstore/we-borrowed-gentleness Poems in New Yorker, Poetry, Rumpus, and elsewhere
227 followers229 following6 posts
Reposted by J. Estanislao Lopez
HVhanvanderhart.bsky.social

“The point of departure for the politician and the poet is completely different. The poet always says sorry, I've done wrong, and the politician says look at me, I'm always right.” —Kim Min Jeong https://aaww.org/ill-do-what-i-want-a-conversation-with-kim-min-jeong/

be honest. The political inclination and the poetic inclination are in direct confrontation.
I mean why do poets write? Because of guilt. A guilty conscience. When we've done something wrong, like when a poet in love is sorry and hurt, they'll write a poem about it and start feeling even more vexed about it. That's the poetic mind. But if a politician admits error or fault, that's it, their political life is over. The point of departure for the politician and the poet is completely different. The poet always says sorry, I've done wrong, and the politician says look at me, I'm always right.
0
Reposted by J. Estanislao Lopez
JJj9joseph.bsky.social

Sign the Open Letter: https://www.undocupoets.org

“Dear Pulitzer Prizes: It’s Time to Recognize Literature by Noncitizens”
“We, the undersigned, believe that we have a duty to ask what constitutes the literature of a nation, and in asking this question, we believe it is essential to veer away from the definitions the State provides as to what it thinks constitutes U.S. selfhood.”
0
Reposted by J. Estanislao Lopez
MRmbrrray.bsky.social

If you have GGTG in your #sealeychallenge stack, I’d love to see! And not too late to ask your library for a copy. Here are a couple poems from the book. https://bookshop.org/a/92150/9781950774845

0

😁

0

Inaugural poem post (from my copy of Linda Gregg's All of It Singing):

Bamboo and a Bird

In the subway late at night.
Waiting for the downtown train
at Forty-second Street.
Walking back and forth
on the platform. 
Too tired to give money.
Staring at the magazine covers
in the kiosk. Someone passes me
from behind, wearing an orange vest
and dragging a black hose. 
A car stops and the doors open.
All the faces are plain. 
It makes me happy to be
among these people
who leave empty seats
between each other.
0
Profile banner
JE
J. Estanislao Lopez
@estanislaopoet.bsky.social
Author of WE BORROWED GENTLENESS (Alice James Books). Link: www.alicejamesbooks.org/bookstore/we-borrowed-gentleness Poems in New Yorker, Poetry, Rumpus, and elsewhere
227 followers229 following6 posts