A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
Fruit Stand Carve red into me, use your whole arms to entangle my body. I want to feel protected and warm, blue-warm like a star nearing expansion. I’ve been told I’m not humbled enough. I want you to hold me; my knees have failed and gone somewhere else. You allow yourself to let me fall […]
At our 2017/18 Poetry Series event with A.E. Stallings, folk songwriter Jaspar Lepak dazzled our ears with an original song as part of the Bushwick Book Club program — it’s on repeat at the SAL offices right now! Below, listen to Jaspar’s song, which asks, “Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?” and read the […]
Black Courage There are wolves in wolves clothing Telling the weak That the sheep are the ones to fear, You are that sheep baby boy. Courage runs in your blood, So you will be tapped into. We live in a world where the authority Shoots patterns into unarmed citizens We live with crisp folds in […]
You Do Not Have To Be The Moon You do not have to be the moon. You do not have to follow the sun always in its footsteps you do not have to take fleeting breaths of cold clear nothing through deep craters like gills you do not have to shed a light on those […]
All You Ever Wanted Was A Semyon To Hold After Anastacia Reneé All you ever wanted was a Semyon to hold Why do you always have to be there for your little sister? Why did you get yourself into this? Don’t you dare be transgender Don’t you dare get hurt because you care Don’t you […]
Do Not Forget My name is more than Just a name It is a proclamation A declaration of prosperity My name is dead ancestors breathing fresh air My name carries the near dead Tongue of my lineage to shore The mispronunciation of my name is Wind blowing the sails My name has been slaughtered, Butchered, […]
Our Parents Are a Lost Cause I told you to take our mother into your timeless hands. It takes effort for her to move her lips, so let her tell you that she loves you, let her ask you how school was, and hide your leathered palms, as you will your calloused fingers. Take her […]
By Cody Pherigo, WITS Writer-in-Residence I’ve become semi-obsessed with checking the weather channel website several times a week for the last 3 months. It’s like Facebook without friends. I want it to tell me spring is here to stay, the sun exists, and temperatures will rise steadily to a glowing, saturated peak. But do I? […]
A Poem in the Voice of the Wind Like you, I can make the warmest of weather into a sick, shivering mess. Like you, I am angry, and whip at people’s hair and clothes, though you only do it in your imagination. Like you, I love to stir up the sand with my fingertips, but […]
Falling Angel My father stands by my side listing rule after rule after rule. I roll my eyes and shun his words of caution as he straps on my wings. The wings are big and white. I secretly threaded a raven feather for luck. I look toward the blazing sun and spread my wings and […]