This is an email from Loose Words Letter, a newsletter by Loose Words.
Jul 30, 2020
Loose Words Letter #17
Abstract Thoughts in a Representational World
Welcome to the weekly newsletter from Loose Words. These letters go out every week, on Thursday morning or afternoon, and highlight many of our published poems from the past week. We hope that these poems find you reconstituting what a balanced life should look like.
“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was.” — Jackson Pollock
Think about that quote as it relates to poetry and how abstract our words can be. They don’t need to be representational to touch someone.
These letters are an opportunity to catch up on poems you may have missed during the past week. We post a few lines from each one to give you a preview, but we encourage you to read the full version (all friend links so anyone can read them) of the ones that leave you thirsting for more. A one-minute read could change your whole day.
Featured Poet
Each week we feature one of our contributing poets at Loose Words on our homepage and in this letter. This week it is Paul Mulliner. Paul is a philosophical writer and digital artist. Read 6 of his poems on our homepage this week.
Collection
Two weeks ago we introduced Collections to Loose Words. Collections are groupings of poems with an overall theme. You can find Collections on the home page underneath the Featured Poems, the Guide To Publishing Poetry on Medium, and the Featured Poet sections. We have released On Love, On Mental Health, and this week we are releasing, 40 Fans.
40 Fans features 10 of our most read and appreciated poems, all from different poets. This section is a great way to get acquainted with multiple works around one theme, as well as to find poets you haven’t read before or ones you shouldn’t miss. Take a look at our Collection this week and see what you’ve missed.
40 Fans features loose words from Connie Song, Gail Walter, Florence Wanjiku, Carolyn Riker, Bradley J Nordell, Simran Kankas, Wild Flower, Catherine Caruso, Ell Benjamin, and Anna Rozwadowska.
Loose Words From Last Week
The Other Side of Love by Gail Walter (curated)
“careless from the paint-stripping
confrontation the skin peeling
heart wafer thin enough to flutter
in a light disinterested breeze”
Bergamot & Grapefruit Peels by Ell Benjamin
“Bloody
from oranges. Sheets
hanging on the clothesline
covered in daddy’s
fingerprints.”
Don’t Call Me The Fool by Elizabeth Williamson
“I have these memories
and I want to bury them
along with the time we spent together”
Apologies by Lizzie Bestow — her debut in Loose Words
“You hold my wrongs so tautly against me.
It reminds me of my own immorality.
I castigate myself so completely.”
The Heart Of The Sob by Mary Jones
“There is but a sliver in the mind
To this, of dedication to my lifetime
As you go about the trivial nerve-racking visage
I’ll be a memory soon forgotten in the heart of the sob”
Agitation by Jennifer Cowie King (curated)
“scrambled dreams
dry toast
blackened joy”
“drowning
me — another soul
lost in the
sea of
insanity”
“Yet there is no rain
Just our tangled roots
And our deficient soil to blame”
Stillness by Vinitha Dileep (curated)
“Stillness calms mind and body equally
of the pain that drops in with no invitation
like a nosy neighbor,
a sigh of relief — the sound of stillness.”
Lake of Glass by S. Wade (curated)
“To walk beneath cathedral moons
reflected in the lake of glass
Thankful for the strange, distorted
faces and their calling, up from memory”
Poet’s Ink by Priyanka Srivastava
“I muse if there’s a buyer out there
who will take them and lend me
a moon which is not stained with
poet’s ink.”
The Good Days Are Gone by Lark Morrigan
“I cannot find peace
with this invisible string
tied by a power I fear.”
“Across the way you wave.
Waiting for lightning to strike.
The sky’s angry today.
She’ll take it out on someone.
You or me?”
Hello by Madeleine Anne Bognar
“Hello? Can anybody hear me?
Can they hear anything or can anything be heard at all?
The phone line has been dead for months”
Two years long by Milana Bojinovic
“Two full years of being sick of it all
Two full years of banging head to a wall
Two full years of calculation
Trying to omit too long duration”
Loose Words is a diorama of the thought bubbles of the universe, told through poetic verse. We appreciate you being here.
Weekly Quote
“Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works.” — John Keats
