"Greek phrenitikós, frantic" by Martha Ronk

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( June 26, 2018 [Greek phrenitikós, frantic]( [Martha Ronk]( Silence isn’t stillness, agitation has me in its grip remember reading Greeks were like us restless underneath and again underneath water wearing away crevices the itch of canyons skin I didn’t outgrow as the doctor promised burns hot and stinging allergic to what I bring to it allergic to what I’m thinking how much older the underpass is filled to overflowing blue-tented absence corners with the leftover plastic and cardboard happens so fast it isn’t even my heart that’s broken, time stealing & leaking the blue cold what it would have been to be Greek no cortisone a body historians also thought women leaky restless for what out of one’s own skin a future they never knew who’d have thought a daily underpass so many leftovers pizza fries near the parking what skin did we come wrapped in [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2018 Martha Ronk. Used with permission of the author. [Martha Ronk reads "Greek phrenitikós, frantic."]( About This Poem “Lately I have been unable to separate private from public agitation—my own agitation and erupting allergies from the distress around me, increasing homelessness, tents under freeways. I obsess over broken systems, cities, bodies, poetic forms. All of us wrapped in similar skin. Years ago, I read a comparison between early Greek restlessness and American restlessness and began thinking about the ways such restlessness is spread across cultures and historical eras, as well as across our current landscape and individual bodies.” —Martha Ronk [Martha Ronk]( Martha Ronk is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Ocular Proof (Omnidawn, 2016) and Transfer of Qualities (Omnidawn, 2013), which was longlisted for the National Book Award. She lives in Los Angeles. Photo credit: Marcel Shain [more-at-poets]( [Ocular Proof]( Poetry by Ronk [Ocular Proof]( (Omnidawn, 2016) "Thunderstorm Stack" by Anne Carson [read-more]( "What God Knew" by Marianne Boruch [read-more]( "Drawing from Life" by Reginald Shepherd [read-more]( June Guest Editor: D. A. Powell Thanks to D. A. Powell, author of Repast: Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails (Graywolf Press, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about [Powell]( and our [guest editors for the year.]( Help Support Poem-a-Day If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a [monthly donation]( or [one-time gift]( to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038