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Substack's avatar

Hoping to browse more poems? You’ll find them in the Poetry subcategory! Check out this Note for details on how to access it. https://substack.com/profile/41856304-substack-team/note/c-111462470

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Jenovia 🕸️'s avatar

Ahh! FINALLY! ❤️‍🔥

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

💛

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Emily Charlotte Powell's avatar

Brilliant!

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Frank Sauce's avatar

I’d also recommend Dick Whyte’s “Forgotten Poets”. They pull out some gems lost and refound. Their Laura Tanne collection, an unknown Wobbly poet, was grimy feast of delight to read and to learn that the Wobblies had stunning artists in their midst: https://forgottenpoets.substack.com

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Pamela Leavey's avatar

This is wonderful! I hope we might see leaderboards in the sub categories one day!

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Mark Ravitz's avatar

I just tried to set my Substack to the Poetry subcategory, and It didn't work.

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Trey Hinkle's avatar

I love using substack for posting poems i don’t think are fitted for publishing anywhere else. They’re the little scrabbles that capture a moment, capture a feeling, and still ask to be shared. Substack is the place

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Agneta Elisabeth Nilsdotter's avatar

I love ❤️ poetry ☮️✝️🇺🇦🇸🇪🙏👊🏾🎣🔗🇮🇸🪴🙅‍♀️🍭

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TriTorch's avatar

Ask and ye shall receive: Here are some of the best I could find on death and love: https://tritorch.substack.com/p/an-old-man-kneeling-all-alonean-ultimately

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thanks for including me, Maya.

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Nafiu hamza's avatar

Good luck

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Hyun Woo Kim's avatar

Thank you for the mention, Maya! I am very happy that you are enjoying my translation.

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Thank you for the beautiful work you do!

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Nanny Ann's avatar

I hold a special place in my heart for William Carlos Willilams. When I was a child, he was a pediatrician practicing in my hometown of Rutherford, NJ. I saw him frequently and he was a kind man, calming my mother's fear for my infantile eczema. I have always loved his poetry, as a result.

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

I love this! Thanks for sharing this memory!!!

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Phil's avatar

My grandson wrote this ...he had cancer six months before he eventually survived to go to University.....

I was asked on the first day of uni what I did that summer

When we all turned 18 and stupid,

And I wanted to say I travelled.

_____

Thing is,

In the weeks of passed A levels and newfound freedom,

My days were spent under white lights and uncertain nights,

Within hospital walls and sterilised floors.

And I wanted to say why.

___

I wanted to talk about my adventures,

The laps I did around the car park,

Pushing my IV stand up the concrete incline.

Or stories of how I slept most days,

Waking to explore the jungles of daytime tv.

A fragile world becomes a less curious one,

Interest is deferred with a simple C word.

___

My tongue as unambitious as my feet,

I wanted to say

I learned another language,

My no hablo espan̈ol was "what on earth is a lymphocyte".

So many cannulas and chemicals to learn.

Lymphoma,

Primary mediastinal

Large b-cell.

Stage 4.

______

I went travelling.

Down further than anyone has ever gone snorkelling.

And in these depths came pearls of wisdom,

Collected in my arms as I lay on the seafloor,

Too sick to stand.

_

Some found their pearls backpacking

In the deep forests of Vietnam,

But no words of life are spatially fixed,

Especially ones you can't understand.

Fluency came to me,

When my PICC line was filled with R-CHOP and methotrexate,

As I hoped for a total metabolic response,

Hoped for the all clear.

_____

As your skin was tanned

and mine went pale,

We both have stories only funny to ourselves

Of the new worlds that shape our soft bodies.

Bald heads are so funny when they need to be,

Anything is funny when it needs to be.

___

It's easy to travel,

It's in every moment,

In every unknown territory.

Tales of wisdom and pleasure

Are in every corner of the world,

But sometimes they sit by your feet,

Waiting to trip you over.

____

We go travelling to survive.

We Travel,

To get better and go home.

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Wow, a remarkable poem. That’s for sharing this with us. Is he still writing? I would love to give him a free subscription to Poetry Today so he can join us for the live classes I teach once a quarter. Let me know and I’d be very happy to arrange it!

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Phil's avatar

It was filmed live ...

YouTube. Link here...goto 20 minutes in... guarantee a tear in your eye

https://www.youtube.com/live/sv4DueLmAyA?feature=shared

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Angela K's avatar

Actually it is at 27 mins in.. it was a powerful reminder of the preciousness of life, which can be taken so early.. so glad your grandson got to continue studying, & llive! The young woman who is at 20 mins' poem is @ vaping - ironically what could cause cancer- it was well performed.

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Mark Shields's avatar

Really enjoyed her poetry and performance - but spent 40 years of my life fighting the capitalization of addiction by big tobacco, only to see this declining country succumb to vaping and amplified THC in a big bucks lobbying sprint through our pathetically compromised congress.

So yeah.

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Mark Shields's avatar

Looked for it Phil, but didn't find it... ?

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Angela K's avatar

It's actually 27 mins in.

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Mark Shields's avatar

It’s always the journey… thanks! ;)

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Mark Shields's avatar

Thanks Angela K😉

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Beverley Dickson's avatar

Wow what beautiful words from your grandson Phil -

“It's easy to travel,

It's in every moment,

In every unknown territory.

Tales of wisdom and pleasure

Are in every corner of the world,

But sometimes they sit by your feet,

Waiting to trip you over.”

These lines blew me away ✨. If he is on Substack I want to subscribe 💛

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Phil's avatar

Thankyou for your comments.

He , and his group of three others, won the annual University Poetry Slam competition for this year..so yes as Grandparents we are very proud. His poetry was driven from a need to look outward..at a time when his stage 4 cancer looked too frightening to contemplate.

He's not on social media..not his thing 🤫 but he still writes, but on more lighter topics.

On the Final day, the group sent him out first….it was all live streamed, so thankfully I was able to record as he spoke.

Reading his words is very moving, but watching him live on stage was so emotional.

His delivery, his ability to pause, the emotion in his voice - absolutely stole the audience.

There were quite few moist eyes in the theatre that day ☺️

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Beverley Dickson's avatar

That’s great to hear he still writes; I know the social media “not my thing” thing; I only do Substack, primarily because of what I do as my day job for confidentiality.

His recital is incredibly moving. Best wishes to him and to his health 🙏

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C. Rommial Butler's avatar

"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." -Percy Shelley

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Vw's avatar

This is an amazing quote!

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C. Rommial Butler's avatar

From "A Defense of Poetry", which is a good all round read!

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Kathe Marshall's avatar

What a wonderful discovery! Thank you all for being here😎

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Don't Stop Me Now - TLawrence's avatar

Thank you. I will pass this along to my grandson, who loves poetry (he's 15) and I would love to encourage him.

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Fantastic! Thank you! So glad he loves poetry!!!!

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k_kamath's avatar

You have wonderfully clear prose. This was a pleasant surprise, like the dust of snow from a hemlock tree, on a day I otherwise have rued. Thank you.

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Thank you for the compliment! (And the Frost!) 🙏🏻

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M.S. Spearman's avatar

Oh, now I am excited. I have placed a few articles on Substack, but now I shall put my poetry up too. Thanks for this .

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Thanks for reading!

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Debbi's avatar

Simply fabulous poems and helpful content

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Thank you, and thank you for reading!!!

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Emily Charlotte Powell's avatar

This is such a joy to read, and delighted to see a poetry category. Andrea Gibson’s poems are utterly breathtaking. Things I Love had replace my gratitude list since I read Andrea’s poem. Bravo 🙌

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kirstin lathrop's avatar

I write poetry princess8815.github.io/poetry

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Mark Shields's avatar

"Here, poets and readers are participating in poetry’s oldest tradition: the passing of essential truths from one human heart to another. I hope you’ll join us."

I forwarded this wonderful work by Maya Popa to two of my favorite people well before I reached this closing gem!

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

Thanks, Mark!

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Joy Sullivan's avatar

I'm so honored to be included. Thank you!

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Maya C. Popa's avatar

You're awesome, Joy! xx

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