Read a Poem

The Golden Spaces
—after Lo Kwa Mei-en
By Katie Mertz

the wind makes use of me

how blood owns its animal:

a pretty way of saying I am grateful

you have given me the chance

to fail you miserably grateful

for the quiet spaces we have built

in a world so wounded

whose working titles all write

the poems black little ghosts

of a bleached reef how much heat

is too much heat

I call my houseplants

by their full names my hands

in their soil I think

if I stay here long enough

something will begin to heal

The Golden Spaces by Katie Mertz. Used by permission of the author.

About the Author

Katie Mertz is a 2015 graduate of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program, and the author of the chapbook Flower Poems (Frontier Slumber Press). Her past work has appeared in jubilat, Sixth Finch, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Poor Claudia, Birdfeast, and others. Nowadays she spends her time baking and filling garden beds with native plants. Her home is in Akron with her husband, Nick, their two cats, Tito and Finn, and newborn son, Myles.

Write a Poem

Choose one poem from this year's “Read + Write” and write a poem in response to it.