FACE / FATHER’S DAY 2021
by Ricky Novaes de Oliveira
Twofer this week.
To close out 2023, a couple poems from the past that I recently refigured. “Face” is free verse, free association that has a bit of a concrete form. “Father’s Day 2021” is a short poem that leans on repetition to dwell on cyclicality. They are poems that were written separately, but I think they go together like two sides of the same coin.
I’ve been spending the last few months mostly working with previously written poems, editing rather than creating new. I offer you these two poems as an exhale before the breath of a new year.
Though I haven’t been writing a lot lately, I have been reading. Bliss Montage by Ling Ma is haunting and halting—my favorite book this year. Death Valley by Melissa Broder is a transformational experience, and really funny. A “Working Life” by Eileen Myles is one I planned to read again as soon I finished.
Cheers to a new year, and I wish you the best of luck in it.
Windowsilly, Ricky