Silent Academy Pamphlets
In 2022 I published four pamphlets with The Silent Academy as part of their pamphlet residency, which is a year long poetry series. Quarterly pamphlets contain four poems each, and focus on a theme of the poets choosing.
The Silent Academy is an artist-run multimedia press whose work focuses on the conceptual, and the desire to disrupt habitual thinking.
My pamphlets were written in real time as the seasons changed. Loneliness bled into tenderness which evolved into longing and colored into a pink blush.
Items of Hunger & Precision
Published on the Spring equinox in March 2022, the poems in this pamphlet explore themes of loneliness, change, unsteadiness, and the mundane.
How to be lonely (in the spring)
Find a man to sleep with
in a bar or on an app
Someone with broad hands
who can hold you into place
Walk home in the morning
Unsteady legs, dew grass
The camellias are blooming and
the cemetery is carpeted with
pale pink blossoms
Hallow yourself out
Stuff yourself with petals,
warm rain,
twisted ankles
Items of Drift Becoming
Published on the summer solstice in July 2022, the poems in this pamphlet concern themselves with tenderness.
How to be Tender
Grow a scab
over your entire body
Wait until it is peeling, until
it is flaking off of you in
big paint chips, until you can see
the newer layers beneath
Stand in the sun peeling
all your scabs off
Stand in the sun until you
have a loose pile of skin
paper around your feet
Marvel at your elastic skin
Press both thumbs into
Your thighs and watch them
bounce back
Look, how untested it is
Look, how soft you are
How it hurts to touch
you, how you want
to be marked again
Bruised plum
Beat smooth
Items of Proof & Invention
Published on the autumn equinox in September 2022, these poems explore the nature of longing, unfurling, and the changing of light.
How to be Longing
Drink three martinis
Write until you can’t read
your own words anymore
Let yourself be pierced
by the thorn of your own
wanting
Items of Uncovered Hush
Published on the winter solstice, December 2022, these poems explore what it means to blush — from cold, being seen, knowing oneself.
How to Blush
Put your hand on your
own throat
Sink under the bathwater
Go outside
Let the pink of your cheeks
melt the snowflakes on impact
In the air your wet hair freezes
flurries bite into the delicate
skin of you neck
Everywhere snow hits
you blush
Many thanks to Andrew, for his belief in these poems before they were written, his attention to detail, and his encouragement. And a deep deep deep thank you to my partner, R, who helped immensely with the editing process, and who makes me a better writer with every word.