Posted by Safia Jama | Filed under photo-paintings
# Queens Writers Resist: February 27th, 2018
21 Wednesday Feb 2018
21 Wednesday Feb 2018
27 Friday Oct 2017
Posted photo-paintings
inBOMB Magazine has graciously published three of my poems: “South with Wildflowers,” “Self-Portrait as an Agnes Martin Painting,” and “The Victorian Era.” As for this photo, I took it in the City of New Orleans public park a couple years ago, and this is what inspired the line: “I tend to my fallacies like this field of yellow petals.”
http://bombmagazine.org/article/4130102/three-poems
Thanks, as always, for reading.
09 Friday Jun 2017
Posted photo-paintings
in01 Monday May 2017
I was very happy to be among the poets featured on WNYC radio for the National Poetry Month #NYcityverse challenge. You can listen to the 3-minute radio spot here.
Posted by Safia Jama | Filed under photo-paintings
06 Friday Jan 2017
13 Tuesday Sep 2016
Posted photo-paintings
inWe walked all the way downtown,
past the church,
past the policeman’s frown,
’til we neared that cordoned-off,
hollow space, the ashes long
since blown away.
I read a sign that said closed for the day.
And if you wish to visit,
you’ll have to reserve
a space
to mourn your loss
and shed your tears;
a grief neglected
must be paid in arrears.
Now we walk around the edges
and peer
through the cracks, and hear
the low rumble
of subway tracks.
The protesters in Zuccotti Park
make a half-hearted cheer;
walking past the firehouse,
I shed 343 tears.
We stand at the memorial’s entrance,
and see the tops of a few trees.
I guess I had hoped
for more than these
hotel bars & blaring TV’s.
I know, I should have called ahead.
Still, I wish there was a place
to go and grieve at odd hours,
without a pass
or an appointment.
*
September 17, 2012
12 Thursday May 2016
Posted photo-paintings
inBlue whale swallowing the world.
24-hour hotline: Occasional no answer.
We show our wares and want to be well-liked.
This first-born, we place in your blue box.
Walls made of war and Happy Birthday.
Humanity, mashed up with a fork.
This video has no sound.
This sad dog will not go out for walks.
May his tears deepen the intensity of your blue frame.
20 Wednesday Apr 2016
Posted photo-paintings
inThe Offing’s Aricka Foreman spotlighted my poetry in “I Slay: 11 Women Artists To Get Us Into Formation.” Foreman writes: “To be a rebel woman, in the simplest of terms, means to speak for herself, of and for her life, honestly.” For the record, I love this definition. I wrote and posted my poem, When They Ask About Your Summer, here on this very blog two summers ago. I recall feeling a need to share my poetry without having to submit my work to an institution. I like how Foreman splices artists of various disciplines, together, forming a virtual collective of rebel women. Foreman eschews the usual hierarchies: No one is listed under a number, and multiple genres are represented. Several of my heroes, like Zadie Smith, Edwidge Danticat, and Maxine Hong Kingston, are featured alongside writers I look forward to getting to know, like Gala Mukomolova and Meredith Talusan. Much gratitude to the Offing for recognizing the work of women writers and artists making their own respective paths in the world.
28 Monday Mar 2016
Posted photo-paintings
inI’m pleased to announce that I’m the new nonfiction editor of Apogee Journal, a literary platform for innovative, albeit underrepresented, voices in literature. In this interview, I talk about poetry, nonfiction, and why I want to read work that “doesn’t care to be likable.”
24 Wednesday Feb 2016
Posted photo-paintings
inTags
My poem “Mouse” is now up at Cooper Street Journal. Thanks to the good people at Rutgers-Camden for supporting my work.
P.S.: Doesn’t this cat have the best posture ever?