Stephanie Niu
In the dream there is a whale shark. I hold her fin,
and we quietly agree where to go. The water is not cold.
Then I swim breast stroke in the living room,
the couch falling away below. My mother says water dreams
are auspicious. That night she dreamed of slaying
a snake, cutting its long body like a carrot. I feel her pride
for me swell, even at this. The lucky animals migrating
from her dreams to mine. Her relief that I can conjure,
even in sleep, what she cannot give me—good rest,
good luck, an ocean to dream in. But she is always swelling.
She is always in motion, urgent for something
she cannot name. Can she call it superstition when it uncovers
the truth of her marriage. When she dreams of a body
tucked into a closet the night of her second miscarriage.
For her, there is no difference between what you control
and sleep. There is no split, a real self and a dream self
to divide neatly. There are just dreams.
from the book SHE HAS DREAMT AGAIN OF WATER / Diode Editions
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Joyelle McSweeney Wins 2022 Shelley Memorial Award

In his citation for the award, which celebrates poetic genius, Calvin Bedient writes that, "Toxicon tightens up formally against invasive things, everything toxic, corrupting, spoiling, devastating. Writing like a champion boxer, with clean, sharp jabs, is what gets you through. The force of her lines, her imagination’s daring, her phrasing’s shuddering vigor, are exhilarating."

via POETRY SOCIETY OF AMERICA
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What Sparks Poetry:
CAConrad (THE OPEN ROAD) on Ecopoetry Now 

"Remember a few years ago, I asked you to cut my arm with your bowie knife, so I could write a poem while observing my cells in their 27-day repair cycle? There is something special about having the body be part of the writing experience, and with these birds and animals in the desert, each one is assigned a spot on my body....Locating an animal on myself is an incredible way to enter the writing."
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