Another morning shifts into view like frost receding from rooftops, the unexpected cold of April’s end. The sheets are warm with your body, the imprint next to me where your hand pressed the mattress. Now entropy. I have to leave this space and wake the baby. I finger the edge of the comforter will-less to leave. You snort in your sleep. Our parting is the same every morning. In one motion I’m sitting on the edge of the bed and throwing open the curtains–the sun shouts GOOD MORNING on the walls and throws the light across your face. Your eyelids screw up because even in half sleep you can feel the light.
Tag: ohio
Ghazal for Poetry Month
Sliver of the icicle from a clogged gutter in April, wind like a spray // of water, biting raw our cheeks and hands held to pray.
A rolling over in my belly, again. You awaken like spring // should be. Up with the hyacinths and daffodils opening petals to pray.
Sticky fingers in my hair, ringing curls around your index // together we smell like peanut butter, a scent to teach me to pray.
When you climb the stairs alone, my back turned, your smile grows // like spring urgency or crocus bursting among new grass to pray.
Pray for sunshine. Golden hair as you run from me, a shriek as joyful as a prayer. // The robins scatter at your approach and you reach your hands out to pray.
Individual Excellence Award 2022
So happy to announce that I have been awarded the 2022 Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council! I am thrilled to be named among so many talented Ohio artists and so grateful for the recognition of the council for my body of work.
The poems that I submitted represent such a labor of love, trauma, and growth over the past couple of years. I cannot wait to show them to you this year!
Thank you, Ohio Arts Council!
Poetry that Responds // New Poem!
Due to the Covid-19 quarantine in Ohio, the Ekphrastacy April 2020 event at Heights Arts in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was cancelled. Fortunately the staff at HA got together and had us poets record our poems for a virtual ekphrastacy!
My poem “Invisible Storm” is up on Heights Arts’ website. It was inspired by “Black Horse” by Jean Hoffman.
Enjoy!
Barnhouse Journal
Please support this amazing journal out of Cleveland, Ohio!
Barnhouse Journal’s debut issue dropped in February on their website here!
I have a prose poem, “The Beast with No Face,” in this issue. You can access it online or purchase a hard copy.
June & July Happenings
I am happy to announce that after a year of adventure in North Carolina, I will be returning to Ohio. Cleveland and the whole state of Ohio hold a very special place in my heart, so I am grateful to be returning HOME and to the amazing literary communities that Ohio has to offer.
Go check out my poem “Bird With A Broken Wing,” which appears in the new issue of Red Queen Literary Magazine.
And look for my debut chapbook, SPACE SPECTACULAR, from Ghost City Press this July.
Amanda Stovicek D'Alessandro 