Poetry Month Spotlight
P. R. DyjakWoman Without a Country
because you were white
because you believed
because you said the Pledge of Allegiance every school day
because your teachers and parents told you so
because the policeman was your friend
you believed
…………………………..for a very long time.
but you were raped/molested/beaten
and your boyfriend/husband couldn’t protect you or
your boyfriend/husband did it
and you had learned
…………………………..all the wrong fears:
fearing the blacks and browns
fearing the stranger
instead of your white neighbor, your white uncle,
…………………………..your self.
because you had not questioned
sometimes you could not not believe
(it wasn’t safe)
so it took a long time.
you dreamed
you dreamed new dreams
and woke up in the same place
knowing
why Cinderella has no story once she’s gained the castle
suspecting that Rapunzel
bricked up her own door.
Fun & Anxiety
……………………….1
Language rolls up and nuzzles your ankle
like a kitten sometimes made of nettles:
You’re allergic to cats.
You’re deathly allergic to nettles.
You’ve never seen a kitten roll, is it
..like a lobster roll?
Steve Martin revealed the dangers of cat juggling, the
jerk. Are stand-up comics better loved than poets?
..or just better paid?
……………………….2
People back East talk funny.
People out West talk funny.
People down South talk funny.
People up North have their mouths frozen shut.
……………………….3
You’ve learned your ABC’s — isn’t that enough?
……………………….4
You can love a brand new word, as a word,
..thanks to semiotics.
……………………….5
You took Freshman composition — isn’t that enough?
……………………….6
When you get mad you can throw
..the text appropriate to that occasion
..at the offending source:
..When Brad said, “You ought to do the dishes.” I threw Adrienne
Rich’s Dream of a Common Language. When he told me I should go
to church
..I whipped June Jordan’s Kissing God Goodbye at him. When he
told me that poetry was stupid
..I reached for Pierre Joris and Jerome Rothenberg’s Poems for
the Millennium, Vol 1.
..It laid Brad out cold.
……………………….7
You speak English — isn’t that enough?
……………………….8
Can we form a Language Police? What are the penalties for misusing
the semi-colon? the comma? What about possessives?
Shouldn’t you lose a few fingers if you make a sign “Please turn the light’s out”?
……………………….9
Didn’t Jesus speak English?
……………………….10
If language reflects and creates culture, and culture
reflects and creates language, does a train conductor
leaving NYC at 3:15 pm going 35 mph en route to DC
have a better bead on the pulse of America
than a novelist?
……………………….11
If I never voice my poem
and you read it
do you interpret it?
If you hear me read my poem
but never see it written
do you “experience a performance”?
Is writing a self-effacing act?
……………………….12
If I write a poem about blueberries
because I love blueberries
..even when I drop them on a white shirt
and I use “I”
and you hate blueberries
and you read my poem —
..even though I force you to say “I love blueberries”
you will not.
Your cool intellect may appreciate
my form, my rhythm, my sound,
and the way my line
breaks.
But you will not inhabit my poem.
Does it fail?
Did I write it to piss you off?
Why do you hate blueberries?
……………………….13
Is language all about audience?
……………………….14
In marching band
I was one of 10 flutists
in front of the drum section.
The football players would run
’till their hearts burst.
Each cell sings —
blood pushes rhythm
(womb to word).
Is every body looking for their poetry?
……………………….15
Specifically, my instinct
is to Medusa:
Cixous was right.
I am right.
The Medusa is laughing
with the Sheela-Na-Gig and the Horned God.
……………………….16
Here’s a moment.
Notes
“Woman Without a Country” was a finalist in the 2001 Sue Saniel Elkind Poetry Contest and appeared in the Fall 2002 (24:2) issue of Kalliope: A Journal of Women’ s Literature and Art.
“Fun & Anxiety” appears in Mercury Retrograde: Fried Electronics, Transport Mishaps, Snarled Communications; An Anthology of Poetry and Prose, ed. Sammy Greenspan (Boston: Kattywompus, 2013).
About the Poet
P. R. Dyjak [aka Patricia R. Dyjak] is a poet and Ph.D. who was a professor teaching creative writing, ethnic literature, literary theory, and composition at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point until she had to take disability retirement. “Compassion” and “And it harm none” are her watch-phrases. Issues of social justice are of great importance to Dyjak, as is the web of life. She is a lyric poet trying to be brave enough to push her language and silence to do more. She lives with her dog Zoey (15!) and cats Flora and Chianna in the very green city of Stevens Point in the very white, northern part of Wisconsin. Her chapbook Symphony for the Cutters (2013) is available through Kattywompus Press.
Artist’s Statement
I am always reading poetry, novels, and short stories. I am always listening to music, the wind in the leaves, the clomping of the pedestrians who walk by my house, the conversations going on all around me as I walk to campus. I am immersed in language and sound. I feel the rhythm of my walking, the rhythm of my swimming. Rhythms and phrases come into my head, teasing me until I write them down, discover where they are leading. Poetry makes everything else possible. I need to write. I need to play with words, with sound, and rhythm. It is what keeps me sane and alive. It is what brings me joy.
Fourteen trumpeter swans flew over me in formation in February. A blessing. Four years ago seven tundra swans few over me in February, saying, “Hey! Hey! Hey!” I looked for a greaser in a leather jacket with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth; finally, I looked up. The tundra swans were turning, and turning, coming in to land in the tributary of, the Wisconsin River that borders the Stevens Point Dog Park and the Green Trail. Open water. This is poetry; this life, this interaction, this going on. Poetry makes everything else possible. Four years ago, I was close to death: I decided to live. My mother died at the start of last December. I go on. My fifteen-year-old dog is dying, eating less each day. We go to the dog park, watch the eagles and vultures riding thermals. Look for swans. Hey!
BMP Celebrates National Poetry Month
Happy National Poetry Month! For poets and poetry lovers—and perhaps for those who love poets—this is a special time. At Brain Mill Press, we like to celebrate all month long by sharing featured poets. This year, we’re featuring work by seven wonderful poets from the Midwest.
Top photo by Yevhen Buzuk on Unsplash