Inside Me Someone is Speaking
A Mass Poetry Festival Cento, 2025
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Inside Me Someone is Speaking
A Mass Poetry Festival Cento, 2025
Inside me someone is speaking inside is more than me speaking is inside is tree perfume for which we might weep I want to divine your name whose hands built the air for echoes it was truth before it was known it was underground speaking our names it was you and me and we could be mycelium holy play I want to divine this wood wide web of time to let time do its work mesmerized inside me when she took her own life like a magic trick deeper roots became golden rain dawn redwood ginkgo linden white pine willow of breath expression is the antidote to repression someone is singing as if there is no sky yet skin heavy as heartache dancing dying to live in beauty divining this vibrant chorus bud to flower to leaf fluttering brave in the wind through each and all our names we speak by Janet E. Aalfs
The title and first line are from Danez Smith; other lines/words in the order they appear are from Ross Gay, Artress Bethany White, María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado, Danez Smith, Leslie Wheeler, L. Renée, January Gill O’Neil, Marilyn Chin, Lauren Russell, Keetje Kuipers, Danielle Legros Georges, Regie Gibson, Amanda Gunn.
Janet E. Aalfs, 2nd poet laureate of Northampton, MA (2003-2005), and founder/director of Lotus Peace Arts at Heron's Bridge/Valley Women's Martial Arts, was a featured presenter and workshop facilitator at "The Power of Words" conferences, Goddard College, 2007 and 2008. Her poems and essays have been widely published, including 3 full-length poetry books: Reach (Perugia, 1999), Bird of a Thousand Eyes (Levellers, 2010), and What the Dead Want Me to Know (Human Error, 2022).
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