Like many writers, I feel centered when I write, or it might be better to say, when I don’t write, when I can’t write for whatever reason, I feel, frankly, de-stabilized. It’s dangerous for me not to write.
—
Sigrid Nunez
Three Poems by Allyson Paty
Norah Maki, Vanitas (oranges with death mask of hair), 2014. Graphite, ink, hair.
Allyson Paty’s poems can be found in Boston Review, The Brooklyn Rail, jubilat, The Literary Review, Tin House, the PEN Poetry Series, and elsewhere. She was a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Poetry and a 2017-2018 participant in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Program. With Norah Maki, she is co-founding editor of Singing Saw Press.
Related
A public cafeteria, the ghost of my heart gorges herself on spent ammunition // The Orlando medical examiner processed each of the 49 Pulse victims apart from the gunman. / Even amid gravitational collapse, surviving atoms couldn’t reanimate with him.
The poets on their latest collections, the texture of language, and work that pulls the rug from under us.
The poet on her new collection and what it means to mess with, fuss with, break, and refresh language.