Read a Poem
Shake
by Samantha Imperi
Everyone knows
you never, but
what if I break?
What if I can’t take
it? What if one day
it cries and cries
like a record skipping
on a hairline scratch
and what if I was always a bad person?
Did you know?
Would you have told me?
Do you have a metric
that can judge?
Wouldn’t haunts me
like a cobweb
the ghost of someone else’s home
clinging to my skin
and I keep remembering
those who didn’t
and how they suffered
for forgetting. I can’t be told
what I’m capable of,
such nurturance
and such destruction. If I am
an earthquake, then my child
is a mountain, an eruption
along my fault lines,
so clearly defined here
at the places I split.
I would rather
have birthed stone
than something I could kill.
Shake by Samantha Imperi. 2024. Used by permission of the author.
About the Author
Samantha Imperi is a Ph.D. Poetry student at Ohio University. She received her MFA from the Northeast Ohio MFA program at the University of Akron in 2023. Her work can be found in Wild Roof Journal, The Great Lakes Review, and The Festival Review, among others. The poem “Shake” is from her unpublished collection, The Decision, which grapples with the complexities of deciding whether or not to have children. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @simperi08.
Write a Poem
Alex Dimitrov has written a poem based on Jack Kerouac’s quote, “Be in love with your life.” Write your own prose poem of at least 25 phrases, each on a specific thing you love, each beginning, “I love….”
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Enjoy Every Sandwich
I love Warren Zevon--A Haibun
I love the fact I can ask for a Diet Coke in eighteen different languages. I love the concept that this is all that matters in life. I love the idea Coca-Cola can be categorized as sub-religious. I love the reality that life boils down to just how much effort you put into enjoying a well-poured Diet Coke. I love being able to spend at least five minutes daily mourning the loss of TAB as an elixir for good mental health. I love the way our grandfather found TAB in sparkle bottles the day it first appeared in American stores and brought it to us at the beach. I love the original TAB and the cyclamen-after-taste we were not supposed to talk about. I love the assumption Coca-Cola surely regrets its unprovoked and misogynous murder of TAB compounded with the erroneous assumption it would not be missed by women everywhere. I love the day Dad gave up RC Cola for Diet Coke. I love the option of Coke Zero on ice when Diet Coke fails me. I love the way BJs offers forty-eight cans of Diet Coke, lined up in neat little rows for the price of two six-packs. I love the day our great-grandmother allowed us to store Diet Coke in the refrigerator believing once and for all, it did not contain cocaine. I love caffeine-free Diet Cokebut only sometimes. I love the effervescent popping sound a cold can of Diet Coke makes when first opened. I love posters with Diet Coke written in Hebrew. I love the heart palpitations I experience when dreaming of a cold retro-TAB. I love the way everyone grabs for the complementary can of ice-cold Diet Coke at kiddush on Shabbat. I love the day the Beit Din of Israel crowned Diet Coke kasher. I love the way our saddle horses wrapped their firm, velvety lips around a bottle of Diet Coke, tipped it toward the sky, drank it down then belched. I love a cold Diet Coke in a snowstorm. I love Diet Coke from McDonalds if theres no alternative vendor, that is. I love the memory of a circa 1960s Fizz-Nic attached to a Coke bottle and Diet Coke melting its way through vanilla ice cream like a river on the day after 9-11. I love the metaphysical search for the perfect sugar-free Coke product. I love searching corporate America for Passover-approved Diet Coke. I love Diet Coke on tap while counting the Omer. I love the taste of Diet Coke in the desert with Mt. Sinai in the distance while sitting in a lotus position.
I love, really love
sharing a Diet Coke with
people who matter.
Tovli 2024
Tovil I love the last three lines of your poem
Be in love with your life (Jack Kerouac)
I love those who have died and who will
never return
and I love those who still have not died
but who will soon
I love my life, not my age and pains
I love breathing without a mask
over my face
I love cool, clear spring and fall days
even in graveyards
I love the color of leaves as they
starve and break down
I love kissing a teething kitten
who bites my face
I love the memory of kissing
twisting tongues, lips and teeth
I love the equinox and those longer days
I love when the moon completely
covers the sun, and its corona
in darkness
I love how the streetlights popped on
one by one and there was
a sunrise on the horizon
in all directions
I love how snakes shed their skin
and deer their antlers and how lucky
when you find them in the woods
I love being able to see, read and write
even my fathers obituary
I love that I saw the fins and left the ocean
before the patrol cleared the beach
I love certain kinds and brands
of delicious things to eat
the lobster cracked open
and its court of crustaceans in butter
I love ramen in packages I cannot read
with no English, and Google Translate
that tells me what I need
and the hot pots that heat themselves
with a chemical reaction in a pouch filled with
calcium oxide, aluminum powder, and sodium bicarbonate
I love double, double, toil and trouble
and out, damned spot
I love dusk the best and being up all night
I love sleeping with no alarm and refusing
to meet people before noon
I love the Christmas tree lights, candles,
nightlights glowing in my house
I love when Im so drunk I dont remember
putting them out
I love that I have learned to say goodbye,
not need anyone, and take care of me
in bubble baths full of wintergreen
I love to soak and read a magazine
I love the Victorian houses and horse farms
I wanted and never had, the partners
who were losers that I kicked to the curb
I love my dreams and nightmares
that make me grind my teeth
so I wake in the morning with a startled cry
and tears on my cheeks.
awesome. like a series of little pieces of a person's life.
Thank you! I read the poem by Alex Dimitrov and it had those kinds of turns and darkness. I was inspired by that.
I love my Mommy
I love my dog, my dogs came is VoCo
I love the name Voco, I named my dog
I love boogers
I love coming home from school just not going
I love boogers of all variety
I love silly jokes that my best friend tells
I love summer vacations to Nannas especially the beach not so much nights on the cot
I love my Xbox and even my hololens
I love my baby brother even though he smells
Je taime
I love the notes you send each day in school
I love thinking of clever ways to surprise you
I love my first real adventure without my parents
I love that we risked breaking curfew
I love the pace of this career
I love the optimism of a glass half full
I love enjoying this time with friends that are like family
I love the newness of living
I love the newness of love
I love thinking of their first steps
I love reminiscing on stories of our lives
I love the swirl of yester year shrouding each room of this old house
I love learning pickleball and my weekly call with my old mate from the band
I love the newness of living, I love we have some more time to share
great. I had the feeling I was climbing the staircase of someone's life.
These Are a Few of My Loved Things
1. I love my Lord Jesus Christ who saved me from myself.
2. I love my children who choose not to know the Lord but know I give Him an earful about them.
3. I love my grandchildren who consider me a religious rebel, who struts around carrying a rosary and prays at the drop of a hat.
4. I love laughing so hard my cheeks hurt and my belly aches i.e. ( the time my grandmother asked a grocery clerk where the marijuana was in the spice aisle because her daughter used marijuana in her stew and it was delicious.) My grandmother was looking for marjoram.
5. I love when my best friend calls and we can't stop talking. I love when she says, You know I'm religious and astrology is wrong but the reason you are so stubborn is because you're an Aries. I'm sorry but the month people were born explains a lot about them!
6. I love every holiday that I spend with my family and I hear my kids say, She can't hear as they smile at me while they whisper, she's crazy. and my grandchildren can't wait to see what crazy grandma is going to do next.
7. I love when someone comes up to me and remembers my son who died before the dew of youth had dried upon his skin. I love when they say, I remember your son Jason. He was as handsome as a movie star and so talented and such a gentle soul, I think of him often.
8. I love all the ways God has shown me I'll see my son again.
9. I love when the chipmunk perched on the rock at the end of the driveway surveying his kingdom glares at me when I return home.
10. I love when the deer play hide and seek with me as they stand on the hill in my back yard looking like the bark of tree with legs. They stare me daring me to see them.
11. I love when I step out on my front porch at the end of summer and hear the loud buzzing of insects like they are at a party blowing noise makers, with crooked party hats on their heads because they know this may be their last big blast before fall's chill chases them all away.
12. I love in late March when I go to the hidden ravine nestled next to a busy highway to see the first green foliage with tiny yellow flowers carpeting the floor of the ravine, creating a fairy land as far as I can see. I'm convinced I'm viewing Never land and at any moment will see Tinkerbell if I only clap.
13. I love being bundled in a soft blanket and nestled in the safe harbor of my recliner, sipping tea and reading a book I can't put down while rain and wind pound on my windows.
14. I love a summer's night when the day's hot air now tepid wraps about me and the stars glisten above me while the moon peaks out from behind a lone cloud and I gather all of this into my mind's eye and wrap the scents, sounds, feelings and sights to be unwrapped and remembered on a cold winter's night when the wind howl's outside my window and I can only see halos of street lights through whirling snow.
15. I love to sit on the front porch of the Hotel Lakeside and watch a storm coming across the lake, clouds pushing sun away and chasing the waves, causing them to crash upon the shore.
16. I love prancing in front of my coffee maker as I smell my coffee brewing.
17. I love waking up in a cold house beneath a warm blanket.
18. I love when I got my hearing aids and heard the forgotten sound of coffee being poured in my cup.
19. I love remembering how when I was young I would go out on a cold Fall night and my friends and I would chase each other until sweaty and out of breath we would throw our jackets off and fall upon the cold damp earth to watch the star filled sky.
20. I love that although I never found true love, instead a near miss, I still know and see that true love does exist.
21. I love people who know they are blessed.
22. I love that never having lived more than ten miles from where I came into the world I have loved, sang, danced, given birth, survived loss, persevered, grown wise, been foolish, been loved, know the power of friendship, cared for others and been cared for, sought and was given redemption. Learned that you don't have to travel far to live a rich life.
23. I love the gift of motherhood. I love that every time I or anyone holds a baby we have within our arms a tangible miracle.
24. I love that I still on occasion ride my bike no hands.
25. I love that I'm excited about seeing what's on the other side of life. I know my son is there and is even now only a whisper away from those he loved.
a memoir in poetry! I love it!
I love a special sun rise where the first red clouds are seen high in the sky.
These red clouds brighten our skies with a burst of color letting us know that we grow within their shadow.
The love of the skies are known by few because most people ignore its beauty.
We should take the time to view for they bring you a moment of joy.
I almost felt dawn happening as I read this little poem. so nice. Joyous.
Day 13. Alex Dimitrov has written a poem based on Jack Kerouacs quote, Be in love with your life. Write your own prose poem of at least 25 phrases, each on a specific thing you love, each beginning, I love.
Enjoy Every Sandwich
I love Warren Zevon--A Haibun
I love the fact I can ask for a Diet Coke in eighteen different languages. I love the concept that this is all that matters in life. I love the idea Coca-Cola can be categorized as sub-religious. I love the reality that life boils down to just how much effort you put into enjoying a well-poured Diet Coke. I love being able to spend at least five minutes daily mourning the loss of TAB as an elixir for good mental health. I love the assumption Coca-Cola surely regrets its unprovoked and misogynous murder of TAB compounded with the erroneous assumption it would not be missed by women everywhere. I love the option of Coke Zero on ice when Diet Coke fails me. I love the way BJs offers forty-eight cans of Diet Coke, lined up in neat little rows for the price of two six-packs. I love the effervescent popping sound a cold can of Diet Coke makes when first opened. I love the metaphysical search for the perfect sugar-free Coke product. I love searching corporate America for Passover-approved Diet Coke. I love Diet Coke on tap while counting the Omer. I love the taste of Diet Coke in the desert with Mt. Sinai in the distance.
I love, really love
sharing a Diet Coke with
people who matter.
Tovli 2024