Tupelo 29/30: In/Equality

Dear Reader, 

When I used to run cross country in high school, I would judge my personal performance, not on my time, but by how much energy I had left at the end of a course. Some high schools, including my own, concluded their meets with a lap on the track. If I was able to engage in a full sprint across the last stretch of field before the track and continue this burst onto and throughout the track, I had saved too much energy. I hadn't pushed hard enough earlier or throughout. 

In the poetry equivalent, I feel like I am running wounded as I make my way to the final 400 meters. Today is 29/30 for Tupelo and 38/39 for my own personal project. I am going to make it. 

I already know that tomorrow's poem has to be titled "We Need to Build Bridges Instead of Walls" and it must be about "running around like a mad woman." I've already decided that I am going to borrow a page from Donna Vorreyor and draft a Cento of lines from people's work at tonight's World Above Reading (7pm, Dante Hall Theater, 14 N. Mississippi Ave., AC, NJ).

But today, here is my second-to-last poem of this project. Its title was donated by my wonderful friends and colleagues Deb Figart and Ellen Mutari, and the subject, women and economic inequality, was donated by another amazing colleague, friend, and mentor Heather McGovern. 

I've been trying to write a version of this poem for most of the month, and what has been most challenging are all the facets of in/equality in general and those that surround gender economic inequality (as it's not just gender!). So I did what I normally do when I'm trying to write a poem: I read a lot about women and economic inequality. And I thought about doing an erasure poem or a definition poem (both viable options to pursue in the future). In the end, I stuck with an image that kept haunting me and gave the poem a loose sonnet form. 

Here is an excerpt from "In/Equality" (read the full poem on Tupelo Press' 30/30 blog): 

"...This is not to say

they’ve never scuffed a boot on a workroom

floor, but these men don’t need to walk on dirt

anymore. The other side of this coin is worth

less where dollars incense (with dolor, with sense)."

Reader, thank you for reading this blog and following the poems on the Tupelo site. I am so grateful for all of your support.

If you would like to donate to support my project, please make your way to the Tupelo Press donation page. Be sure to select my name from the scroll down tab titled "Is this donation in honor of a 30/30 poet?" 

Also, if you're enjoyed reading poetry this month, you might consider a subscription to Tupelo. You'll receive 9 books for $99, which is a steal! You can also *gift* this subscription to someone else (including me!)...I have friends and students who would be delighted to be the recipient. 

Yours in poetry,

Emari