midweek roundup — 3.27.19

For the roundup this week, I’ve got 1 essay, 1 poem, and 1 podcast for ya. I just returned from my second graduate school residency so I suppose I’ve got more literary things floating around in my brain at the moment – hence the essay and poem – and this is the podcast I saved to listen to on my drive home last weekend. It did not disappoint. As always, if you read or listen to these, hit me up so we can talk shop!

01

The essay: Some Thoughts on Mercy by Ross Gay.

02

The poem: Owl Maiden by Anya Silver, who died last August from inflammatory breast cancer. It’s from her book I Watched You Disappear. The entire book is so lovely — and it’s short. I read the entire collection in just a few sittings.

The Owl Maiden

No transformation’s instant.
Her hair fell out first, replaced by quills.
Then her feet shriveled like lemon rind,
the nails hooking back into talons.
Her mouth lost its curl in a bill’s peck
and snap, in a shrill new tongue.
Her eyes blinked and rounded like coins.
The spell can’t be unspoken, no potions,
she knows, can reverse her bloodstream’s
bitter tides. Her beloved stands rooted,
watching her flap her hollowed bones.
What terror she inspires now,
perched in some bare and wintry birch.
Her weeping, a shriek. An omen.

03

The podcast: Johann Hari on Armchair Expert talking about addiction and depression and the importance of community and love.