{"id":6227,"date":"2021-01-30T11:27:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T11:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/?p=6227"},"modified":"2021-10-23T13:26:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T13:26:23","slug":"carrie-etter-three-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/6227\/carrie-etter-three-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrie Etter: Three Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author’s note:<\/strong> In revisiting my writing from the latter half of 2017, I encountered these poems that try to articulate political frustrations and the balance one makes between “the world out there” and individual experience. They come to no conclusions, of course; the act of writing is less about making sense than increasing awareness and trying to communicate something of that struggle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

Another Threshold<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am sorry to disappoint. The cat was.<\/p>\n

Every time I say Obama, a friend says drones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Asleep in my lap. I should have minded the date.<\/p>\n

Every time someone says President Trump, I am aghast.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did it come down to me? The cat was not my excuse.<\/p>\n

We all read healthcare fears on Facebook.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not really, but if it was. Am I holding the pin?<\/p>\n

We post videos of one species of animal helping another.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking for the metaphorical grenade. I could stay a while.<\/p>\n

If I had more faith in petitions. If I couldn\u2019t liken the news<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to a succession of extreme weather: flood, tornado,<\/p>\n

heat wave, drought, hurricane\u2014and repeat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the Wake, A Proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In temperate, in cotton blend, in a combination of fluorescent<\/p>\n

and natural light, I<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

proliferate, this petition signature posted, that direct debit paid, out<\/p>\n

and out and out I go<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to exhale too emphatically at the end of Body Pump, to hold<\/p>\n

the spoonful of green curry<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

on my tongue a luscious, even lascivious moment longer,<\/p>\n

to be inevitable<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and for now, as yet, inexhaustible. To teem in spite of an<\/p>\n

orange-skinned tyrant and<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the beguiling (\u00a3350 million more a week for the NHS!<\/em>)<\/p>\n

promises of politicians,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I. And you.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Many<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

And now the unbridling: I cut the straw circling the stems, and whoosh! the blooms, the scarlet, the white, the green (two bodies wrestling together, mouths, hands, limbs aflurry\u2026.),\u00a0this, here, now\u00a0<\/em>of colour (of taste, of touch), of the nipped bouquet resuming the meadow\u2014and yet not (O the morning). The marble floor of not. The stone wall of\u00a0who did you think you.\u00a0<\/em>Once the flowers have been scissored from their roots, what did you\u2014 I see a young woman, just down the terrace, who from taut uncurls and rises and collapses and I can\u2019t say, can I, how many she is\u2026.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Carrie Etter is an American expatriate resident in England for nearly twenty years. She has published four collections, most recently\u00a0The Weather in Normal\u00a0<\/em>(UK: Seren; US: Station Hill, 2018), and edited\u00a0Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets\u00a0<\/em>(Shearsman, 2010). She is Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. ‘The Many’ first appeared in Shearsman 117\/118.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author’s note: In revisiting my writing from the latter half of 2017, I encountered these poems that try to articulate political frustrations and the balance one makes between “the world out there” and individual experience. They come to no conclusions, of course; the act of writing is less about making sense than increasing awareness and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[58,12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/images-2.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42xiC-1Cr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6227"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6371,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions\/6371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}