Jennifer Givhan: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Apocalypse Déjà Vu

 

At the end of the world the dishes pile in the sink;

my children, who placed bets on which dogs

would survive longest without us, the scrapyard chihuahua

or the blue heeler who stopped bringing us dead

creatures when she saw how it made me cry,

stayed with me when the last caravan left.

When they asked if I believe in life on other globular

things spinning toward emptiness, I promised

the real joy has always been imagining endlessness

with them. We almost thought to scrub the kitchen

before the end. Almost thought to find matches

for all the unmatched socks in the basket.

Instead, we fashioned capes from old winter coats.

Set the dogs loose. Ran with them toward the treeline

till the great dark widened its maw & we kept running.

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Jennifer Givhan is a Mexican-American and Indigenous poet and novelist from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices. Jenn is the author of five full-length poetry collections, most recently Belly to the Brutal (Wesleyan University Press), and the novels Trinity Sight, Jubilee, and River Woman, River Demon (Blackstone Press). Her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, POETRY, and Salon and has won many national awards, including The Southwest Book Award, New Ohio Review’s Poetry Prize, Phoebe Journal’s Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, the Pinch Journal Poetry Prize, and Cutthroat’s Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. 

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                                                              Running Away. Oil on canvas. [artist unknown]

 

Comments

[Indran J Amirthanayagam]

Beautiful and chilling that run to the end of the world and beyond. Thank you.

Indran Amirthanayagam
Editor Beltway Poetry Quarterly
Publisher, Beltway Editions.

Hope you will send us some poems...

[email protected]

[Grace Cavalieri]

Thank you, Jennifer, for bringing joy into poetry.

[Mary Louise Kiernan]

Stunning thought-provoking pairing!

[Eileen]

Wonderful poem and art.

[Bill Nevins]

If dogs run then why not we? Bob Dylan said that but this brilliant poem takes that almost thought far forward. Beyond the question!

[Michael Whelan]

So unsettling timely and amazing in conception -- and so delicately tender in the chill of stoic acceptance in those “Almost thoughts" of the closing lines. A stunning poem!

[clarinda]

Superb. Ive seen that maw in my nightmares. The "almost did something" leit motif
is ME. It is helpful to have one's nightmares so beautifully turned into words!

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

Somehow cheering - full of love. Thanks,

[Linda Hickman]

Wonderful poem in these chaotic times.

[lally]

wow...thank you

[Diane Ward]

Yes, that’s it. What can be done.
Thank you.

[Don Berger]

Fabulous poem! I love how it switches from present to past tense in the sixth line, really enjoyed the run of lines 2-6, not to mention everything else that follows. This poem offered more and more pleasure the more I reread it, which I'm still doing, and will do. Thank you Jennifer for your talent and brilliance, and thank you Terence for this extremely wise pick!

[Terence Winch]

Don: Thanks for the comment, wherever you may be.

[Susan Campbell]

Wonderful!

[r vargas]

Since I've heard you read, I heard this poem in my head with your voice, not mine. It was gentle with a sliver of melancholy just below the surface. Beautiful and sad in perfect balance.