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Recorded by francine j. harris for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on February 14, 2023. www.poets.org
Recorded by francine j. harris for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on October 6, 2021. www.poets.org
The illustrious francine j. harris is in the proverbial building, and we couldn't be more thrilled. The award-winning poet breaks down the transformative potential of being a hater, mourning the loss of anonymity at the open mic, championing the poets she's in lineage of, and much much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review!
In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, we discuss the life and work of francine j. harris. She was a writer in residence at Washington University in St. Louis and taught creative writing at University of Michigan and Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. She is currently an associate professor of English at the University of Houston. Included in this episode is a reading of her poem “Single Lines Looking Forward. or One Monostich Past 45." Full Poem: The joke is orange. which has never been funny.For awhile I didn’t sleep on my bright side.Many airplanes make it through sky.The joke is present. dented and devil.For awhile, yellow spots on the wall.Obama on water skis, the hair in his armpits, free.I thought the CIA was operative. Across the alley, a woman named Mildred.Above the clouds in a plane, a waistline of sliced white.I don’t sound like TED Talk, or smart prose on Facebook.These clouds are not God. I keep thinking about Coltrane; how little he talked. This is so little; I give so little.Sometimes when I say something to white people, they say “I’m sorry?”During Vietnam, Bob Kaufman stopped talking. The CIA was very good at killing Panthers. Mildred in a housecoat, calling across the fence, over her yard.If I were grading this, I’d be muttering curses.The joke is a color. a color for prison.Is it me, or is the sentence, as structure, arrogant?All snow, in here, this writing, departure.All miles are valuable. all extension. all stretch.I savor the air with both fingers, and tongue.Mildred asks about the beats coming from my car.I forgot to bring the poem comparing you to a garden.Someone tell me what to say to my senators.No one smokes here; in the rain, I duck away and smell piss.I thought the CIA was. the constitution.I feel like he left us, for water skis, for kitesurfing. The sun will not always be so gracious.From the garden poem, one line stands out.Frank Ocean’s “Nights” is a study in the monostich.Pace is not breathing, on and off. off.Mildred never heard of Jneiro Jarel.I’m afraid one day I’ll find myself remembering this air.The last time I saw my mother, she begged for fried chicken. My father still sitting there upright, a little high. Melissa McCarthy could get it.Sometimes, I forget how to touch.In a parking garage, I wait for the toothache.I watch what I say all the time now.She said she loved my touch, she used the word love.In 1984, I’d never been in the sky.My mother walked a laundry cart a mile a day for groceries.Betsy DeVos is confirmed. with a broken tie.Mildred’s five goes way up, and my five reaches.Support the show (https://getlit.org/donate/)
Recorded by francine j. Harris for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on August 24, 2020. www.poets.org
On this episode of Well-Versed, poets Carl Phillips and francine j. harris discuss their bodies of work, the representation of people of color in poetry, and answering a question that shouldn't be able to be answered.
Recorded by francine j. harris for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on March 26, 2020. www.poets.org
Today's poem is enough food and a mom by Francine J. Harris.
Oh yes, it’s KAVEH AKBAR in da house Pharmacy this week! All the poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be read here: http://bit.ly/2xu8VST Kaveh’s debut full-length collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is just out with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK, and his chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. The recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives and teaches in Florida. Kaveh also founded and edits Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in contemporary poetry. Previously, he ran The Quirk, a for-charity print literary journal. He has also served as Poetry Editor for BOOTH and Book Reviews Editor for the Southeast Review. Along with Gabrielle Calvocoressi, francine j. harris, and Jonathan Farmer, he starred on All Up in Your Ears, a monthly poetry podcast. CONTACT: kaveh@kavehakbar.com or on Twitter @KavehAkbar. [Theme music for the podcast is by Aretha Franklin played by the wonderful coversart & also Ahmad Jamal from his album Tranquility]
francine j. harris revisits her childhood home in Detroit and imagines the ways destruction can be an empowering act. Produced by Colin McNulty.