Kaveh Akbar

Addiction. Recovery. Repeat. Akbar blazes the poetry scene with this introspective, powerful and passionate debut.

Poems

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

from “stop me if you’ve heard this one before”

sage lynn

Sometimes / you have to march all the way to Galilee / or the literal foot of God himself before you realize / you’ve already passed the place where / you were supposed to die. I can no longer remember / the being afraid, only that it came to an end.

from “portrait of the alcoholic with moths and river”

to make life first you need a dying star / this seems important with you so close to / collapsing yourself      the mute swans final / burst of song       I know you’ve tried this before / when they asked where it hurt you motioned in / a circle to the ground under your feet

l🌀

Every day / my body follows me around asking / for things. I try to think louder, try / to be brilliant, wildly brilliant. We all want / the same thing (to walk in sincere wonder, / like the first man to hear a parrot speak), but we live / on an enormous flatness floating between / two oceans.

it’s a myth / that love lives in the heart     it lives in the throat we push it out / when we speak     when we gasp we take a little for ourselves

rain/anagha

I’m becoming more a vessel of memories than a person 

I am not a slow learner     I am a quick forgetter

I’ve been so young for so many years it’s all starting to jumble together 

he’d say if you’re not happy in your own yard

from UNBURNABLE THE COLD IS FLOODING OUR LIVES

I envy their discipline but not enough to do anything about it

I blame my culture     I blame everyone but myself

Calling a Wolf a Wolf quotes

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