August 2021

Amanda Johnston

Dear friends, 

 

I hope this finds you well. Here we are in the last days of summer. Labor Day is right around the corner and the fall semester has started or will soon. Today is the last day of August, but I made it! My August newsletter is going out in August. I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to write to you. At the beginning of the month, I was sick with Covid. I’ve been fully vaccinated since February, I wear a mask, social distance, wash and sanitize my hands obsessively, and I still caught the virus. I share this with you not to dismiss the vaccine or safety measures. I’m telling you this so you will stay vigilant against Covid. Don’t let up! Being vaccinated meant I wasn’t in danger of going to the hospital. My family being vaccinated meant we weren’t worried about a loved one going to the hospital. I still quarantined and we were very careful not to cross-contaminate areas of the house. My sweet husband took excellent care of me for the 12 days I was home. A gift of love and patience. During that time, I thought about how much we are forced to ignore our health for the sake of productivity. This was the worst week for me to be away from work, but my body didn’t care about that. Sit down! my body coughed and sneezed. Sit down! my body yelled through my bones with every ache and chill. So, I did. I logged in to my work email just to set the away message and I rested.

 

I’m feeling better now. I have some lingering symptoms, but every day I feel a bit better. I’m glad I could sit down so that I could get up later. Now I think about how I can turn off the production machine in my daily life. What necessary rest and recovery can I allow myself without the doctor’s note? Friend, this is your sign to listen to your body and care for yourself before your body takes away your ability to choose. Breathe in and breathe out. You are enough.

 

Onward with love,

Amanda

 

 

Maine Publishers & Writers Alliance

New Beginnings Workshop

How do you start writing a poem? You write words on a page. Of course, the work doesn’t stop there, but you need material to sculpt into the first draft of a poem, which will evolve as you revise it later. This course will support and push you to start writing the poems you’ve always wanted to write.

 
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August 2021 READ WITH ME WINNER

 

Each month, as a thank you to my subscribers, I'm doing a #ReadWithMe drawing and one lucky subscriber will win a copy of a book by a poet I love. This month's book is Wicked Enchantment by Wanda Coleman and the winner is Nancy Holder! Read "American Sonnet 51" from the book below. Click the link to purchase your copy.

 
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American Sonnet 51

By Wanda Coleman 

 

in my last incarnation i inoculated myself

with oodles of dago red and stumbled into fame

without falling. i worshipped in the temple of Lady Day

and took Coltrane as my wizard. i always wore my mink coat

to the Laundromat and drank pale champagne with my

 

soft-boiled eggs. i believed King Kong got a raw deal.

i believe great and prolonged sex cured cancer. i believed

in the afterdeath. i was liberator of cough-and-gaggers

from the cages of their spew. i scavenged rusted auto parts,

built a niggah machine, loaded it with atomic amour and

 

wiped out all purveyors of poverty. . . swapped my pink

pearl for a black sapphire. and then one quincentennial

i rose from the magnificent effluvium of my jazz

to discover my children did not know me

 

 

Enter Amanda's #ReadWithMe giveaway. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter.

 

Celebrate 25 Years of Cave Canem!

Amanda Johnston’s first book sings with the passion of our great warrior poets. I hear the down-to-earth clarity of June Jordan, the passion of Sonia Sanchez, the self-assuredness and rage of Audre Lorde.  While Johnston’s poems bring to light grave and unending traumas in the wake of slavery, for me, they are hopeful.  They reassure me of a fierce connective tissue between us (embodied in many of her poems as mother love) that would lift a truck from the body of a child to save her.  Johnston’s poems apply just the right degree of salve and just the right degree of fire to our current American wounds.  A beautifully crafted, fierce and compelling voice. - Toi Derricotte

 
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Want to bring Amanda to your event?  Let's connect! Available for online readings, adult and youth workshops, seminars, and speaking engagements.

 

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Cave Canem Foundation is near and dear to my heart. As a fellow and current board member, I know firsthand how Cave Canem supports Black poets with the necessary time, space, and encouragement needed to dream, create, and grow. Thank you for your continued support for this "home for black poetry." 

 
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