NaPoWriMo Day 7

The poet and translator Michelle Gil-Montero introduced me to Eduardo Chirinos, and I've fallen in love. His book The Smoke of Distant Fires has the energy I'm trying for in my own poems. Here's a poem I wrote based on his work:

“A Poem with a Line by Eduardo Chirinos”

what should I call this poem I’ll call it a rush of chambers         

to evoke the sound of the narcissistic black hole it will be           

*that was the only time the poem refers   to itself*      

the soul needs no self-reference           

it’s busy earning      pleasure and moral reason

holding us upright

we bear             so many               bricks                         

when all we want is the tang of souls    touching or

more    when we want more     so that our souls          

have to improvise        

one more thing about the poem           

is the word soul making you uncomfortable?     

it does me        which is why

I wear it  because it used to be heartbreak

which is worse  so small                   so empty

not heartbreak itself      but its valorization   

soul is the bigger risk    and now that I’m older

the more tenuous risk   soul      is what we leave

behind  and mine is useless       useless              that’s

not how I want to be    with you