Outside a Man Yelled Relax
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
By Joanna C. Valente, Angelo Colavita, Eric A. Ammon, Viannah E. Duncan, & Lisa Henning
This is a collaborative poem written during our Collaborative Poetry Workshop (hosted on April 25th) taught by Joanna C. Valente and Angelo Colavita. Both the hosts and participants in the class worked on this poem.
TWENTY-FIVE
Outside a man yelled relax
didn’t stop but kept moving
still like breath moves through water
through twenty-five years
of age or of
days long passed
long ago (I was just
swimming, yes by a river bank
wrapped, if you will in plastic
me, not
the river
So holy yet so
filthy
to move as one
only
as dirty as the lonely world
allows.
For twenty-five years, the earth surrounds me
fights &
finds me in twenty-five days, a still life) among the watered trees
and a basket of fruit
a flower
a landscape my grandfather
and myself in a chair
an open window to
the outside.
Outside the universe on a planet
like ours but we haven’t
torn it apart yet
to erase it of
what we consider beauty
like reckless children
who say to relax and who even says relax anymore. That’s the last thing
I want to hear
in uncanny valleys, void of
light or sound.
The damp grass
around a loud grave no name written
except relax and the sound of
arguments in line
breaks
and bones cracking and nails scraping
of an aged body of twenty-five years
that I summon
inhale from
the base of
my tired feet
with fire breath
I speak
but it went to the wind
instead and stood shadows in place
inside no place
under shadowless sun.
Eric A. Ammon is a Philadelphia-based poet focused on processing trauma and communal healing through allegory, symbolism, and imagery. He uses his dissociation and anxiety as a technique within his writing style, evident in his sudden shifts in meter and airy subject matter, to empower identity rather than suppress it .
Viannah E. Duncan is a professional editor for academic, corporate, and creative writers. Her creative nonfiction and poetry can be found in Lavender Review, Screen Door Review, Flypaper Magazine, the Same, Eclipse, and other small literary journals. She lives outside of Washington, DC, and holds an MFA in creative writing with a focus on poetry, creative nonfiction, and small press publishing. You can find out more about her and her editing services at Duncan Heights (http://www.duncanheights.com).
Lisa Henning is a poet from cold and snowy central Minnesota. Poetry keeps her warm. She has a Bachelor's degree in English and submits her work for publication occasionally. For the last three years she has been working on a book of poetry that hopes to inspire others.
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of several collections, including Marys of the Sea, #Survivor, (forthcoming, The Operating System), Killer Bob: A Love Story (forthcoming, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault. Joanna is the founder of Yes Poetry and the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, Them, Brooklyn Magazine, BUST, F(r)iction, Ravishly, and elsewhere. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente / FB: joannacvalente
Angelo Colavita is a writer from Philadelphia, PA, where he serves as Founding Editor of Empty Set Press and Associate Editor at Occulum Journal. He is the author of two collections of poetry — Flowersonnets (ESP 2018), Heroines (ESP 2017) — with work appearing or forthcoming in the Operating System’s ExSpecPo series, Pigeon: A Radical Animal Reader vol. 2, Mookychick, Madcap Review, Prolit Magazine, Metatron, Dream Pop Journal, South Broadway Ghost Society, Luna Luna Magazine, Yes Poetry, Apiary Magazine, and elsewhere online and in print. His forthcoming epic poem, Nazareth, will be released by APEP Publications in 2020. For more information, please visit www.angelocolavita.com or follow him on Twitter @angeloremipsum and on Instagram @angelocolavita.
