new poems this summer

This summer I have poems in very different places:  Upstreet, a print journal frm Massachusetts.  Cutthroat, a journal from Colorad0–this one is a tribute issue to Joy Harjo and Linda Hogan.  And two poems http://www.brooklynrail.org/2015/07/poetry/patricia-spears-jones

Cutthroat

Cutthroat

Whispers and prayers in The Brooklyn Rail was created in response to the horrific killings

in Charleston, SC.  Blossoms in the gyre in Cutthroat is a way of connecting nature, spirit and the struggle for justice.  Poets are working.  Poets are working hard.

 

Half -moon blues

Last night I sat on my neighbor’s stoop. She is a retired nurse. The sky was clear. The moon half-full and both of us were both furll of anguish and rage. She said “I can’t watch the news, this story” and then we discussed what most likely happened to Sandra Bland. My neighbor could have been Ms. Bland. So could I. The video of the State Trooper’s “arrest” of Ms. Bland is horrifying. “There was no reason, no reason” my neighbor muttered. “And he kept saying put down your cell phone”. That video shows male rage at its most naked. Had that trooper written the ticket and walked away, Ms. Bland would be either paying a fine or disputing the ticket. She’s dead. We sat there and just marveled at our own “luck.”

photo by Patricia Spears Jones

Macon Street roses, Bed-Stuy