Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Issam ZinehAdded: Friday, August 16, 2024 / Used with permission. This poem published through the Poem of the Week Series is part of the Poetry Coalition's 2024 slate of programs in the spring and summer that reflect the transformative impact poetry has on individual readers and communities across the nation, and is made possible in part by the Academy of American Poets with support from the Mellon Foundation.The grammarians are up
in arms, and the war over
the semicolon has been reignited.Today, the legislator notes his preference
for certain kinds of killers. Those,
one might say, with a European sensibility.He believes in the power of crude
measures and symbolism and, maybe,
the special now of the lyric moment—The innumerable lists of grievances.
The innumerable languages of the body.
The disdain for the appearance of the word body.The inconvenient sounds of our vital organs.
The euphemisms that snow us inward.
Listen as Issam Zineh reads Form & Occasion .
Issam Zineh is a poet, editor, and public health worker. His collection Unceded Land (2022) was a finalist for the Housatonic Book Award and Balcones Prize for Poetry. He lives on Paskestikweya land. To learn more, visit Issam's website.
Image Description: Issam Zineh stands in front of a wall with typewriters arranged on it and looks to the left. He wears a short-sleeved button-up with a botanical pattern.