SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.

My Deaf Ear Hears Another Set of Lessons

SWWIM Every Day
by Elly Katz

a life packed stiff as soil
my namesakes became blue hills

sometimes I think they are quiet birds
sometimes cathedrals bleed into heaven
sometimes we fly in our dreams

mom teaches me to survive,
but I am better at disappearing into a cloud

my namesakes show me constellations are not
indifferent to our pain

mom teaches me to hold her hand,
but I am better at holding water
that sings my namesakes’ songs
like caravans
as they speed past

At 27, verging towards a doctorate at Harvard, Elly Katz survived what doctors surmised was unsurvivable: a brainstem stroke from a physician’s needle misplacement. Forthcoming books: creative nonfiction, From Scientist to Stroke Survivor: Life Redacted (Lived Places Publishing) & poetry, Instructions for Selling-Off Grief (Kelsay Books), both in 2025.

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