Jos Charles is author of the poetry collections a Year & other poems (Milkweed Editions, 2022), feeld, a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series selected by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions, 2018), and Safe Space (Ahsahta Press, 2016). She teaches as a part of Randolph College's low-residency MFA program and resides in Long Beach, CA.
Welcome to The Beat. Today, we’ll hear the poet Jos Charles read part of her long poem “a Year.” This section is called “October.”
Jos Charles:
This is "October" from the poem "a Year"
October rose
up A coastline obstructing
itself I
lost something
in every room they
got in how
how
how
how your dreams
When was it
I knew my house to be
falling apart
when did I lift
an arm or bend
backward corbel like swung you your back
to mine When was it ever September tides pouring over
When whales like men moved about the earth
Walked home
from the pharmacy
looked in bushes backs
of birds heard a ring (every
ring is a dead ring) & were you alive
last it rained when two
sisters ahead la la
they said if we could
la no
femme flaneur my brain la
a living horse wooden
soldiers in it
Perpetual hair falls
to the floor Harpies make a nest there
No book whose margin isn't illumined
with carmine carbon gold
When you get back
they will say
we tore down a house & built a statue of a house
I see you
at night Our
brief
kind an
oak signifies
Goethe like becomes its arm
We peek then ate
We the fruit
Alan May:
You just heard Jos Charles read “October” from her book a Year & other poems. She was kind enough to record for us at her home in Long Beach, CA. Jos Charles is the author of three books: a Year & other poems, published in twenty twenty-two by Milkweed Editions; feeld, which was a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the twenty seventeen National Poetry Series; and Safe Space, published by Ahsahta Press in twenty sixteen. She teaches as a part of Randolph College's low-residency MFA program, and she lives in Long Beach. You can find books by Jos Charles in our online catalog. Also look for links in the show notes. Please join us next time for The Beat.
