Noelle Kocot and Ed Baker

Like all projects of this sort, "Poem-A-Day," from the Academy of American Poets, is rather scattershot, though I have run across a few gems I enjoyed quite a bit. Today, congratulations go out to Noelle Kocot, whose poem, "The Peace That So Lovingly Descends," is featured at "Poem-A-Day." I get the poems via email, though you can see them in a bunch at the archive link above. All the poems have been selected from new books published this spring. Noelle has been published a number of times in Lillie and her work has a personal uniqueness that is hard to cultivate in so few words. Here's today's poem:

The Peace That So Lovingly Descends

"You" have transformed into "my loss."
The nettles in your vanished hair
Restore the absolute truth
Of warring animals without a haven.
I know, I'm as pathetic as a railroad
Without tracks. In June, I eat
The lonesome berries from the branches.
What can I say, except the forecast
Never changes. I sleep without you,
And the letters that you sent
Are now faded into failed lessons
Of an animal that's found a home. This.

Noelle Kocot

Also, the magnificent Ed Baker's "Points / Counterpoints" has been published by Fact-Simile Editions via Issuu free for all to enjoy. Did I say free? Issuu is a great way to publish this work, a blend of the written word, art, and unique topography. The book is challenging stylistically, from an earlier period of Ed's work (copyright states 1970, 1973), yet contains his trademark serious/playfulness that has evolved into the holy fool feel many cherish up to this day. There is a cut and paste element, accompanied by swirling typography, that may surprise those familiar with his current work. The execution might be a bit different but the philosophy is all Ed. This is a return to print of some poetic history and, since it is on Issuu and may be downloaded, printed, shared, or embedded, here you go:

spring begins--
more foolishness
for this fool

Issa
translated by David Lanoue

best,
Don

Toi Derricotte

I subscribed this National Poetry Month to poets.org's Poem-A-Day service and it has been very ho-hum. In recent days, finally, something with spark: you can always count on Toi Derricotte. Among her many powerful volumes are Natural Birth, Tender, and Captivity.

In Knowledge of Young Boys

i knew you before you had a mother,
when you were newtlike, swimming,
a horrible brain in water.
i knew you when your connections
belonged only to yourself,
when you had no history
to hook on to,
barnacle,
when you had no sustenance of metal
when you had no boat to travel
when you stayed in the same
place, treading the question;
i knew you when you were all
eyes and a cocktail,
blank as the sky of a mind,
a root, neither ground nor placental;
not yet
red with the cut nor astonished
by pain, one terrible eye
open in the center of your head
to night, turning, and the stars
blinked like a cat. we swam
in the last trickle of champagne
before we knew breastmilk—we
shared the night of the closet,
the parasitic
closing on our thumbprint,
we were smudged in a yellow book.

son, we were oak without
mouth, uncut, we were
brave before memory.

Toi Derricotte

Toi Derricotte is a formidable poet, who mixes grit with beauty; her metal was forged in rebellion, the principles and sensibilities of which she has always been dedicated to and which serve as the foundation for what she does. Her work has yet to receive the universal recognition it deserves, but those in the poetry community know, respect, and admire her. I saw her read in a small setting back in New Jersey over 20 years ago from her powerful prose/prose poetry volume Natural Birth. She teaches here in Pittsburgh and was the co-founder of the poetry collective Cave Canem. I deal with Pitt poetry students regularly and the word from that quarter is always good.

Of course, it is, with Toi Derricotte there isn't any other way.

A poet with heart and fire and skill; now there's something you don't see everyday, eh, poets.org?

at the back window
the same person...
mist

Issa
translated by David Lanoue

best,
Don