A Worm Moon In December
Welcome to A Worm Moon, a poetry newsletter where I, Phoenix Yemi, share what I've been reading and writing through the month.
I want to begin the newsletter with a cento. At the end of the year, I always return to the poem ‘I Am Running Into a New Year’ by Lucille Clifton. I find this season difficult, but when I read this poem, the video playing in my head says I’m running, that I’m galloping, and with every step, something is dislodged and I’m shedding layers and layers of rust. And it's strange because I didn't know I was carrying so many things but the lightness of being that comes is undeniable. That’s why I love this poem. Lucille Clifton is holding me, and reminding me that if my heart is open then the door is open.
Which is all to say that the title of the cento is taken from the last three lines of Clifton’s poem, which is from her collection Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980. The other poems featured in the cento are ‘December’ by Linda Pastan from her collection The Last Uncle, 2002 and ‘I Am She’ by Nikki Giovanni from The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni, 1996. Thank you to Lucille Clifton, Linda Pastan and Nikki Giovanni for their voices. I’ll share their poems below the cento.
1
Palestine is still the issue and I want to share with you this poster by Nasser Soumi commemorating the 1976 Land Day when Palestinians in Israel organised mass demonstrations to protest Israel's expropriation of their lands. The poem on the poster is from ‘Poem of the Land’ by Mahmoud Darwish, and the English translation reads:
“O you who pass over my body.. you shall not pass
I am the land in a body.. you shall not pass
I am the land awakening.. you shall not pass”
What we're witnessing is the calculated erasure of Palestinians, and we have to continue to remain conscious of the dystopian reality that we're living in. I couldn't find the full poem but I did find another Darwish poem that felt pertinent. It's called ‘On This Land’.
https://www.wormsmagazine.com/newsletter/palestineisstilltheissue thank you!
2
I wrote this poem during the Reference Point Winter Fayre. There's something romantic about the smell of mulled wine and it took me to the poem ‘Having a Coke with You’ by Frank O’Hara. So I wrote a poem inspired by O'Hara called ‘Having a Winter with You’. I hope you like it and that you have someone to hold your hand when it's cold and the wind is unrelenting.
3
My favourite things to write and read are love poems, more specifically erotic love poems, so I put together a little book of old and new poems so I’d have something tangible of my own to come back to. Here are two of my favourites <3
4
“Give us light, to pierce the deepest darkness // and with the strength of its brilliant flow // we will push our steps to a precipice // from which to reap life's victories.”
To end the newsletter, I want to leave you with this poem by Fadwa Tuqan. It's called ‘A Prayer to the New Year’. I’ve quoted the final stanza above because it was what I was needing. I’m afraid that next year things won't get better, but this poem is a prayer and as I arrived at that last stanza, the word strength looked bright and shiny and it's what I always ask for when life feels insurmountable. I hope the light in this poem stays with you. It's from The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, 2000 edited by Nathalie Handal.
Thank you for reading. I hope you've liked the poetry.
What poems have you been reading this month?
If you feel like sharing, please send them my way. You can email me at phoenixyemi@gmail.com or you can find me on Instagram @phoenixyemoja
💌 With Love, Phoenix 💌
