Ode to the Beloved’s Hips
By Natalie DiazNatalie Diaz reads "Ode to the Beloved's Hips" at the 2014 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Natalie DiazNatalie Diaz reads "Ode to the Beloved's Hips" at the 2014 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By Joy HarjoJoy Harjo performs at the 2014 Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Harjo opens her performance with an honor song, followed by the poem, "In a World Long Before This One."
By Danez SmithDanez Smith performs "dear white america" at the 2014 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By Rosa ChávezRi oj ab'aj xkoj qetal ruk'a k'atanalaj ch'ich'
Xk'at ri qab'aq'wach //
Las piedras fuimos marcadas con hierro candente
quemados nuestros ojos //
We, stones, were branded by hot iron
our eyes scorched
By Lois BeardsleeWhen I asked my mother
If she could remember
What her mother's mother called December
By L. Lamar WilsonShe ambles about this Mickey-Dee kitchen’s din,
unmoved by the hot grease threatening
her ¿puedo tomar su orden? mask.
By Peter J. HarrisSaturn's rings was all nappy
spread out from her head
like she just woke up
took a shower & aint dried them yet
By Julie EnszerThe painters call before we move into the new house. Ma’am, they say—
I am not old enough to be a ma’am, but I don’t correct them—
Ma’am, they say, we smell gas.
I dismiss their concern. I say, Keep painting.
By Nadia SheikhI let Shane Kennedy
reach back in his desk
to fondle my calf,
soft and buttery
By Joshua WeinerToday is Sunday.
Today, for the first time, they let me go out into the sun.
And I stood there I didn't move,
struck for the first time, the very first time ever: