a poem of past demonstrations in solidarity with present ones

Southern Indiana Review fall 2024 Twenty-seven Contributors Salute, Day 21: Mario Chard

Mario Chard is author of Land of Fire, winner of the 2019 Dorset Prize and the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry. Find his work in The Nation, The New Yorker, and POETRY.

mariochard.com
@mariochard (X)

“But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!”

Kate Chopin

more weight

“And what was found is lost
Yes it is
Yes it is
Yes it is…”

— “Mahashmashana”

Crying to a song by Father John Misty. Unprecedented times.

Y’all remember when Ilya said “Some poets are more passionate at faculty meetings than in their poems”? Cause I’ve never gotten over it.

I paired The Remains of the Day with “One Art” in class, two liars betrayed by their texts, deepest irony. Could have shown that scene of Walt calling Skyler in Ozymandias. What else?

Such a fine tiny poem, full of mystery. There are so many moving poems in Tony Leuzzi's book Fog Notes, and some of the best short form poems ever. Here is one of my favorites that I memorized and often say to myself like a dark little prayer.
#poetry

G.C. Waldrep's The Opening Ritual is out from Tupelo. As always, a massive book. It concludes his trilogy on chronic illness and faith. It's OK to start with this book. It's a pretty loose trilogy. Absolutely recommend. Here's the opening poem, that contextualizes the book's title:

Morning by moonlight

Sky makes sense for what follows one’s leaving the branch