Sunday, October 8, 2023 “On Desire” by Sandra Simonds
destroy my life. The culture and the century are so entwined
so how are we going to break the hearts of the young?
I submit to the trees with this here song! I submit to the summer
and all her lovers glistening like meat! I submit to the way sex propels
the engine forth! I submit to the organisms who shake their
fists and stomp their feet and the clouds with their
complex strategies! Woke up in a Soho doorway police
run the ant hills do you remember my name? My lovers scatter
before me how will I collect them? “Do not give up on your desire”
but tell me the story of something that will.
About the Poet
photo credit Kira Derryberry
Sandra Simonds is an award-winning writer and professor who has taught at Bennington College, Florida State University and Thomas University. She is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently “Triptychs” (Wave Books, November 2022) which was a Best of 2022 New York Times Books selection. Her awards include the University of Akron Poetry Prize for “Further Problems with Pleasure” and the Cleveland State University Open Poetry Prize for “Mother Was a Tragic Girl.” She has been a finalist for numerous awards including the National Poetry Series. Her first novel, “Assia” (Noemi Press, 2023), based on the life of Assia Wevill, a SPD bestseller, was shortlisted for the Dzanc Fiction Prize. Her poetry and criticism have been published in the New Yorker, The New York Times, the Best American Poetry, Poetry, the American Poetry Review, the Chicago Review, Granta, Boston Review, Ploughshares, and others. She was the recipient of the Reader’s Choice Award for her sonnet “Red Wand,” which was published on the Academy of American Poets website. She has also been granted residencies at Millay Arts Colony, Vermont Studio Center and Studio Faire in Southern France. She earned a B.A. in Psychology and English at UCLA, an M.F.A. at the University of Montana, and her Ph.D. (with honors) at Florida State University.
Related Event
- At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 20th, Just Buffalo will present a reading featuring poets Michael Dumanis and Sandra Simonds, with a musical performance by Brian DeJesus. The reading will take place at Just Buffalo Literary Center, 468 Washington St., 2nd Floor, in Buffalo.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.