BY JOANNA C. VALENTE
As the senior managing editor at Luna Luna and the founding editor at Yes Poetry, you could say writing is important to me, especially poetry. For me, it’s vital to highlight poetic voices in order to support literature, activism, and expression.
Here are three of my favorite poems I read recently.
Alina Pleskova - “Re: Eros”
“I want useless splendor,
to be as carried off
w/ rapture
as the woman who kissed
a Klimt hanging in a gallery,
later said It was a gesture of love...
I did not think it out carefully
I want the class wars to start
but everyone's so tired”
Marwa Helal - “intimacy v. isolation xixi.”
“q: how do you go from the MoMA to
Temptationz Sports Bar?
a: you take the stairs not the elevator
black heart emoji *and, earlier, by newton,
who maintained: “each particle of space is
eternal, each indivisible
moment of duration is everywhere.” (principia, III, 42).”
June Jordan - “These Poems”
“I am a stranger
learning to worship the strangers
around me
whoever you are
whoever I may become.”
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, Marys of the Sea, Sexting Ghosts, Xenos, No(body) (forthcoming, Madhouse Press, 2019), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault. They received their MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is the founder of Yes Poetry and the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Them, Brooklyn Magazine, BUST, and elsewhere. Joanna also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente / FB: joannacvalente