Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected four poems by Sampson Starkweather for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
* * *
revolution: denied
transcendence: denied
I need a new debit card
and a way to say
“uncle”
in this unwilling
arm-wrestling match
with the world
what can I say
the phenomenon of nature
is coming
to a theater near you
like me
pretending to be
me
it’s performance
is astounding
and god knows
where it ends
life is a dress
rehearsal for
death
we nail it every time
like Kerri Strug
better bunny down
a poetics of autocorrect
won’t save you
angry at anything
beautiful
we didn’t create
lost
at last
in the after
math
of
nothing
who
to such sweet lack
I surrender
guns a blazing
imagine color
is a construct
imagine it
as music
what will fall
sounds like
a sudden gap
wedged into
the intellectual
murmur
not an argument
but a lynx
pacing around
the living room
this is
what it is
to be
with you
to be
bewildered
apart
of the
endless blur
the silent film
of our perspective
is burning
the problem
is memory
(elegy)
how to live
with what
we can’t keep
a flower
(a friend)
impossibly pink
(bright)
the world
in black
& white
Darkness
on the marquee
for the billionth
day in a row
but duh
this life
is on
a loop
Joy Revision
…
routine
will tear us
apart
the woods
are waiting
for me
to take a bow
come home
to a letter
from Heifer United
a bill from something
I don’t dare open
no emails
texts or links
will change the world
but it doesn’t
stop me
from waiting for
whatever
that nothing
that’s never
coming
may be
… … …
the seemingly
infinite encore
of the trees
* * *
Sampson Starkweather is the author of The First Four Books of Sampson Starkweather. He is a founding editor of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press. His most recent chapbooks are Flowers of Rad by Factory Hollow Press, Flux Capacitor, a collaborative audio poetry album from Black Cake Records, and Until the Joy of Death Hits, pop/love GIF poems forthcoming from Spork Press. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
GIFs curated by Ana Božičević, and appear in the following order: Kerri Strug competing at the 1996 Olympics (GIF viagifsoup.com); Leif Podhajsky’s album art for ‘Innerspeaker’ by Tame Impala (GIF via tumblr); Macaulay Culkin wearing Ryan Gosling shirt (GIF via Photoshop battle post by /u/ericisshort on Reddit); Tao Tajima’s “Night Stroll” (GIF via tumblr).
Readers are encouraged to submit 3–5 poems in PDF form to Joe Pan for consideration at poetry@hyperallergic.com.
