5 Poems I Saw This Week

Feat. a pair of pears and a missed connection

Good morning and goodbye to May.

This Friday I’m introducing a new series all about the sneaky, secret poems that disguise themselves as not-poems. Life is full of them—the look that says everything, the branch tilted just so, the Tweet that made you cry because it was so simple.

Poems are everywhere. And since Disco Diaries is a newsletter about showing up for life, it makes senses that we form a practice of finding the poems.

This is a place of delicate feelings, human moments, curiosity and openness. It’s a place to explore the little things and the way they become the big things.

Should you choose to embrace all of that, you will fall in love with an apricot on a windowsill. I hope this series, Poems I Saw, reminds you of the richness that surrounds you in every mundane moment. What poems did you see this week?

1. These Pears

I was so taken with this duo’s dignity that I wrote a haiku about this non-poem poem.

A pear is always
Well intentioned, left to rot
In a handmade dish

2. “Moonbrains”

I just finished reading The Bell Jar for the first time since high school. Sylvia Plath is such a poet, even her insults could stand alone on a blank page. This one feels like a marble on my tongue.

3. The Ambient Sound of Air Conditioning at the Poetry Reading

At a poetry reading in Northern Kentucky, a window AC unit hummed its steady song. The sound of simple summer.

4. This Missed Connections

My friend Lil has a master’s degree in missed connections. Bravely, she wades through the often dirty and/or devastating posts and, when we’re lucky, curates the best selections for her friends. Neither of us can stop thinking about this one, and what heavy confessions are weighing on Dragon’s heart.

5. This Text Exchange

The beauty of hard truths handled delicately.