One of the four Royal Stars is watching over me. Yeah I'm blessed
in these times of nervous weather. The leaves chill in a bundle then
scatter like police, off to the next doorstep. They don't step, they
don't faze me. These jeans could hold three men. But it's just one of
me, girl. Only Son. Only Sound. Only Seer. All this green to gold
to red to orange is just theater. I'm the Real. Keep your eyes on the
Navigator of Snow & Infinite Gray. I rock these boots all year. What
a storm got to do with me? Who knows the number of strolls to
heaven? Not that I'm thinking on it. The Heavens know my real name.
But you can call me Q. Quicker than Q. But, anyway. Certain things
a man keeps to himself. Jesus wept. So I don't. The past is for people
who like to play things over & over. Me, I'm on to the next song.
Listen to my own Head Symphony, to the Royal Stars. The colors,
they thrill me, they fuel these legs.
From You Don't Have to Go To Mars for Love (c) 2020 by Yona Harvey. Appears with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.
Yona Harvey is an American poet and recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her first poetry collection, Hemming the Water. Her second poetry collection is You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love (Four Way Books, 2020). She is also among the first black women to write for Marvel Comics. She won the inaugural Lucille Clifton Legacy Award in poetry from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and the Carol R. Brown Achievement Award from the Heinz Foundation. She is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, teaches creative writing workshops, delivers writing-specific speaker topics, and is at work on her first memoir. She currently serves on the editorial board of Poetry Daily. Yona’s work has been published and anthologized in many publications including Letters to the Future: Black WOMEN / Radical WRITING, A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry and The Force of What’s Possible: Accessibility and the Avant-Garde. She contributed to Marvel’s World of Wakanda with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, followed by a collaboration with Coates on Black Panther & The Crew. Her interests and writings in nonfiction recently led her to teach a workshop for Creative Nonfiction magazine: “Writing Away the Stigma for Young Adults,” designed for teens writing about their mental health experiences.
SWWIM Every Day is proud to present poems by women-identifying poets appearing at Miami Dade College’s 2020 Miami Book Fair.
Miami Dade College’s 2020 Miami Book Fair will host over 200+ authors from all over the world in conversation, in readings, in storytelling, all virtual, all safe, all unique, and all FREE between Nov. 15-22. Reading from their new work will be Diane Louie, Nikky Finney, Heid Erdrich, Jane Hirshfield, Danez Smith, Kazim Ali, John Murillo, Jen Karetnick, Jorie Graham, Kevin Young, among many others. And in conversation with Miami’s own Campbell McGrath will be these poets laureate: Robert Hass, Juan Felipe Herrera, Joy Harjo, among others. Access to Miami Book Fair 2020 is free. For more information and to register please visit MiamiBookFaironline.com. Follow Miami Book Fair @miamibookfair, #MiamiBookFair2020 #MBF2020 #MiamiBookFairOnline.
SWWIM will see you there!
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