thesweetslow

[thesweetslow]

black velvet

oh man, i’ve missed a couple of days, but hey, 👋 here we are.

flashes of lightning, the black velvet artfully torn ⚡️

Halse Anderson, Laurie. Speak, Penguin Group, New York, NY, 1999, Print. p. 157.

#found poetry #napowrimo #thepoeming #blackout poetry

[thesweetslow]

outside the lines

talk teach say no say anything show up. color outside the lines. paint flowers keep the radio on make waves; it is too much fun to give up. Halse Anderson, Laurie. Speak, Penguin Group, New York, NY, 1999, p. 77.

#found poetry #napowrimo #thepoeming #blackout poetry #erasure poetry

[thesweetslow]

a book that saved my life

once upon a time, i was a girl who was sexually assaulted in high school, who found a book called Speak, who read it and wept and wept and wept because finally, someone wrote a story that felt like holding a mirror up to the most challenging, secret + hidden parts of my inner journey at the time. this book had such an impact, i wrote a poem called ‘snip snip,’ somehow found laurie halse anderson’s email address, and emailed a big thank you, not really expecting it to actually reach her. BUT IT DID. anyway. Speak saved a part of my life. it helped to heal me in many ways. it gave words to something i was refusing to speak about myself. this book made me brave. when i brought up a list of banned books to use for this year’s The Poeming: Bans Off Our Poetry, it was the last night of March, so i knew i had to choose something from my own library at home — and then i saw that Speak was on that list, and the adolescent in me felt a fiery rage of HOW DARE THEY and so, it was decided: this is my book for these 30 days of erasure poems. if you’re following along, please be patient — i’m new to the world of Tumblr, and i’m learning it as i go. thanks for being here!

#thepoeming #napowrimo #banned books #found poetry #bansoffourpoetry #erasure

[thesweetslow]

timekeepers

tiny birds sing until the sun burns the clock; wake up the day. Halse Anderson, Laurie. Speak, Penguin Group, New York, NY, 1999, p. 99. 

#thepoeming #napowrimo #poetry month #blackout poetry #erasure poetry #found poetry