Lynn Knapp Archives - The Poetry Box

Poem of the Day (04-03-2018)

The Poetry Box — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 12:52:45 +0000

To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Poetry Box is sharing a Poem-of-the-Day, selected from various anthologies and individual poet collections that we have published over the years.

Please enjoy today’s selection: “Migrant Heart” by Lynn M. Knapp, which appears in her book, Giving Ground:

Migrant Heart

Parched, earth-brown skin,
an unexplored continent,
watered with sweat,
a bronze photo holds him fast.
Sleek black hair,
sleepy dark eyes,
slow, full-lipped smile,
a young man
in a schoolroom full of children,
a twelve-year-old Tejano boy
who arrived every spring to work
in onion and asparagus fields.

On rare rainy days
Alfredo sat one row over
in a two-room school,
his blue flannel shirt still dusty
from the farm.

I moved from grade school
to middle school,
waiting each day
for him to climb aboard the bus,
but he could not follow,
he could not cross
from his world to mine.

Instead he followed the sun,
the seasons, crop to crop,
field to field.

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The post Poem of the Day (04-03-2018) appeared first on The Poetry Box.

Crossing by Lynn M. Knapp

The Poetry Box — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 01:30:50 +0000

“Crossing” by Lynn M. Knapp, published in Giving Ground, released in February 2017 by The Poetry Box was nominated for Pushcart Prize in 2017.

Crossing

His mouth full
of broken syllables,
Mario dies a death
with each twisted word
he utters,
each turn of phrase,
a mark of difference.
Powerful in Spanish,
he is captive, subjugated
in manacles of English.
Still struggling
with his twenty-year adversary,
he asks me,
When you speak Spanish,
do you feel empty?
No, I say,
I feel full, llena de amor,
llena de posibilidades.
But I do not live or die,
drown or thrive,
by this language,
as he does by English.
I do not face daily
small humiliations.
I can cross the border
freely, sin pena.

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Giving Ground by Lynn Knapp – Book Launch

The Poetry Box — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 22:40:11 +0000

Thursday, Feb 23, 2017
7:00 pm

Book Launch
Giving Ground
by Lynn Knapp

Another Read Through
3932 N. Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97227

Featured readers include:
Lynn Knapp reading from Giving Ground, Tiffany Burba reading from Meet Me Where I Left You, and Leah Noble Davidson reading from Doors.

Everyone welcome to attend and share the love of poetry.

Lynn’s Book will be available at the event or you can also order copies of the book in our Bookstore, and for sale at Another Read Through.

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