Disability Poetry in Breath & Shadow Vol 10, No 2

by Sharon Wachsler

What poetry will you find in the Spring 2013 issue of Breath & Shadow, a journal of disability literature and culture?

Ani Keaton's "Withdrawal" uses a spare economy of words to connect the reader intimately to the speaker's embodied experience:

My back, a twig,
trembles
I know each rib intimately
Its size, shape and placement

Read Ani Keaton's poetry.

Jennifer Ruth Jackson's "Again" is a short poem that packs a lot of power. I love it. An excerpt:

Defibrillator paddles bouncingMy body to lifeEach nerve on endRising up to meet you

It starts out seemingly focused on the body's dys/functions but builds toward another force, leaping into its arms at the end. 

Read Jennifer Ruth Jackson's poetry.

The next poetry selection in this issue is "Three Tankas" by Sergio Ortiz. Like haiku, tankas are best experienced directly on the page, and also I don't want to spoil the ending, so I won't be excerpting any right here. You can learn more about tankas here.

And you can read Sergio Ortiz's tankas here.

"Elegy for James Eagan Holmes" is offered by high school student, Jordan Jamison. Lines like these really connected me to me to time and place in this poem:

Do you remember that little taco shop called Rodrigo’s near the 7-Eleven, the place that never gave credit and the dusty old TV played Telemundo all day? Did you eat there, did your mother ever pick up carne asada and burritos and chips there on Fridays for you, and would you smile? 

Read Jodan Jamison's poem.

"Travels of Lip Balm" by Shawn Jacobson tells the story of a man's day-to-day life as witnessed by a tube of lip balm that keeps ending up in the laundry. It's a poem full of circles and cycles.

The drier door opens and I fall outafter traveling the drum. . . .He picks me up, his daughter will want this.He returns to folding clothes.

Read "Travels of Lip Balm."