Hi friends! I’m on pseudo-vacation / underemployed at the moment (let me know if you know of anyone who needs a writer, editor, or social media manager) and catching up on my backload of tasks, and have finally finished setting up the ebook version of my poetry book, Open Things. I know some of you were waiting for this, so I apologize for taking so long!
To celebrate this launch, I have set the paperback of Open Things to the same low price as the Kindle version: $6.50—but only for the next two days! So if you were thinking of picking up a copy or two, now would be a great time!
Here are a couple of deep cuts from Open Things:
pick your battles
less battles
less
how many have you got there?
put a few back
a few more
did you know that in the sunshine
on your street, in the park, by the lake
no one is arguing?
on the car radio the singer
just wants to hold your hand
you, too
can be free
ungendering
your instinct will be to start
when someone asks you not to call them
man or woman, she or he
but might i suggest
you begin your practice earlier
with god?
avoiding not just he or him
but any appellation that could apply
to a titled land-owner
masculine ruler
or possessive husband
get used to god’s pronoun
being god, and when god becomes god
it will start to seem strange to you
how many other wild things
we have corralled into binaries
entirely without need
then it will become natural to drop those genders
like you drop a pointless adverb from your poem
and you will no longer need to label
someone a girl or a boy
to see them as the beauty of god’s creation
and you will no longer need to limit
yourself in who you love
and you will no longer need to live
in those fenced-in places
and you will find such joy and freedom
in the endless, open sky
You can pick up the ebook or the paperback over on Amazon.
Feel free to share this post with a friend!
Love,
Jessica
{{sheepishly asking}
Is there any way not to order on Amazon?