Loose Words Letter #81
Braced For The Fall
Welcome to the newsletter from Loose Words. These letters used to go out weekly, but we slowed their pace over time. We are now sending one a month. You will hear more from us with our submissions at a new high. The momentum is back, and now the letters are, too. Loose Words is a poetry publication by Assemblage that captures disconnected thoughts and lets them find their form.
“If you fall, fall on your back. If you can look up, you can get up.”
— Les Brown
When we send out these newsletters, we post a few lines from each featured poem to preview the whole. Please read the full version by clicking on the link. A one-minute read could change your day.
Collection
Collections are groupings of poems with an overall theme. You can find Collections on the homepage underneath the Featured Poet Section.
Love features eight poems from 8 different poets from our archives. This section is a great way to get acquainted with multiple works around one theme and find poets you haven’t read before or ones you shouldn’t miss.
Love features loose words from Gail Walter, Wild Flower, Aspen Blue, Connie Song, Joe Barca, Christine Kelly, Jessica Lee McMillan, and Priyanka Srivastava.
Selected Loose Words Since Our Last Letter
This Place Has Good Bones by Jessica Lee McMillan
“every crack
streams a story
of what it passed through
where plasmic mantle
leaks molten calligraphy
from ancient dykes and sediment
that verbs through the noun of me.”
Rinsing His Kisses: How to Use a Washboard by Lavender Nightmares
“I want to fill this tub and toss myself in
wring myself out
expose your charm
scrape the stains against the steel
watch you drip-drip-drip out of me
collect the drops in tiny honey glass bottles
hold them up and say, See this,
this is what disarmed me”
“Call me a simpleton and I will accept
with a wide smile on my face
and a warm feeling in my heart
because it will serve as notice
that I have found a way around
all of the clamor trying to distract
me from being me”
I Just Need a Piece of Gum by Esther Fink
“my prayer is for one
freaking square of gum
that was mine
inside
my white summer handbag
that has a designer logo
that I got at Ross Dress for Less
because
my
kid, the gum thief
spotted a toy through the window”
“Do not be proud of knowing little.
No, knowledge doesn’t mean a college
that aims to make you safe but brittle.
Try to maintain your sense of wonder.
be neither technophile nor luddite,
and no, the world’s not going under
but status quo is not a birthright.”
Highlighted Past Poems From Our Archive
“My flesh is an argument
a conversation
a description
it wears my selves all over it
each passed self
a carcass on my hips
a cadaver on my thighs
all these bodies, on my body
all these broken dreams
and hearts
all the mounds where they are buried
my body is a graveyard”
“I’ve given everything
surely you know
this is the end of my season
I spin & fall
for you
again
a mayfly on the wind”
“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” — Peter Marshall
Enjoy the Fall, but don’t fall.
