Poem of the Week | December 19, 2016

This week, we are excited to present a new poem by Arden Levine. Levine’s poems are forthcoming in Barrow Street, The Carolina Quarterly, and RHINO, and recently appeared in AGNI, Sixth Finch,and Rattle.  In 2016, her poem “Offering” was selected by Ted Kooser to be featured in American Life in Poetry (a project of The Poetry Foundation). Arden reads for the literary journal Epiphany, holds an MPA from New York University, directs projects and programs for nonprofits and government agencies, and is a D.C.-born Brooklyn resident.
 
Author’s note:

I had been writing a great deal about my father’s death (not exactly an invigorating subject). During that same time, my friends and I were toppling toward the near edge of middle age and into conversations about wrong choices and deferred ambition, our enthusiasm sanded down to ennui. I wondered if I could find a way to laugh into the drear and dread. Then I caught myself crushing a spider (an act that would have distressed my younger self) and decided to practice at being humorously ornery. Hence, this poem.