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.
Keegan Lester - “Huntington Beach”
“They only dance if you light them & wave. Birds do not
abandon their young merely because of human touch.
This & so many other myths my mother breaks
in her search for palatable colors, for mixing,
for making what was lost whole again.”
Lauren Samblanet - “Fortitude”
“when a landscape is embodied & emboldened
when a landscape is northern & holding
when a landscape offers solitude
when a landscape is explored
when a landscape is seen
when a landscape offers only nothing & nothing at all
when a landscape is horrific & capable of altering external bodily states
when a landscape is arctic”
Jody Chan - “Unpacking”
“look, it can be like the rape never happened.
scrub the carpet to bone, strip the drywall down -
your skin is still the blankest page
beneath the bloodstreak, crater of minced glass.
like an empty bottle whose first flaw is thirst
your body most valuable for the way it inherits silence.
haven't you learned by now that trust is just an omen?”
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, & 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, Brooklyn Magazine, BUST, and elsewhere. Joanna also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente