review

I’m 34 now, and here’s a poem to prove it

Poetry, Reviews
Most recent review: Mother, Daughter, Augur by Mary Simmons in Rain Taxi!
Probably my favorite birthday card this year, mostly because my friend’s little boy picked it out. Thanks, Coop!

Today is March 28th, 2026, and it is my birthday.

The street sun-lined is quiet and cold unfamiliarly. I rest in my bomber jacket waiting for

I am not twenty-one anymore and I do not drink. Do I want to visit a museum? I am

Too easy.

Feeling like the cold air is right. Like my crow’s feet dug in. I should be wise.

Have I lived too many me’s and strung out my soul? Atropos is hanging by a 

Restless. Pining, but unwilling to act. I should steal something. I am far too good; I should act out. I could never! Even these thoughts hurt me.

Restless. Nothing I want but to 

Move. 

The younger me would do something,

Maybe too much, but something.

Is wisdom boring?

Will I fade away

Forgetting the details

Only walking

Never running again?

What do I love harder?

What passion is under the knitted blankets?

Where do I learn about Marcus Aurelius and have a heated argument with a fascist until he falls on his sword from my wit and warmth?

I tell myself if I cared more

If only I cared

But don’t I?

Isn’t the cold street

Empty only in this moment’s eyes

Which I could brighten

To see the jonquils

Peering through the mulch

Open-mouthed and beckoning?

Our leopard gecko, Cheese, in a photogenic moment (one of many).

DVD Poetry Side Quest

We’re gearing up to find a new apartment in June/July and that means purging. I started with books and didn’t really do what I’d consider a “purge,” though I got rid of more than one and that is a minor miracle. However, I did manage to actually purge DVDs.

I’m keeping some, but getting rid of all these. Various reasons. I thought of a fun game for them that’s better than shlepping them all to a store right away. If you would like to purchase one of these DVDs, I will mail it to you

AND I WILL INCLUDE a brand spanking new poem inspired by the film. Or what I remember of it.

How’s that for a weird side quest?

Intrigued? Email me your selection and your address and I’ll Venmo request you for $20 (which includes shipping).

Hugs, Eric

Robert Eric Shoemaker

Website
A person sitting in a garden surrounded by flowers, holding a dog on a leash. The person has a beard and wears a gray long-sleeve shirt, while the dog appears happy and is wearing a red harness.
Photo credit Olivia Welsh

Eric (he/him) is a poet, translator, and interdisciplinary artist. He is the author of the forthcoming Magical Poetics (Bloomsbury), translator of the forthcoming Saint Catherine of Siena: Prayers (One Subject Press), and author of three hybrid poetry books: Ca’Venezia (Partial Press, 2021), an artist’s book of hybrid writing and visual art; We Knew No Mortality (Acta Publications, 2018), poetry and memoir; and the poetry chapbook 30 Days Dry (Thought Collection Publishing 2015).

If you’d like to catch up on previous posts, visit “newsletter posts” from the menu on my website and enter the password: poetryismagic!

Toodles!

Reclamation

Poetry, Reviews

Sometimes, even newsletters are too much. I owe a great debt of joy-seeking cuore energy to poet, songwriter, and life-lover Danielle Gasparro for giving me the permission I needed from the universe (I convinced myself I needed permission) to reject permission and just send whatever moves me in my newsletters and social media accounts. Thank you, Danielle, for telling me to be the artist I am and not manicure my missives.

SO. I’m going to free up my patterns and explain them less.

I’ve begun an experiment in reclaiming my online presence. Thanks for being on this journey with me.

Spent a long time seeking out Saint Catherine at the Art Institute and found her passively cradling these flowers.
This is how an artist portrayed the woman who begged God to crush her and remake her as a vessel of the eternal divine by showering her in blood.

When the light comes

–

Evolution :: 

a voice that claims monstrosities,

The body’s inevitabilities.

I claim to know nothing, but in all knowable signs

The plowed field is broken open.

We kill so much

:: or are we sleepwalking?

Everything that falls out

Can be washed into new forms,

Sugarstinking.

We must explain the light

Before we give back what is not ours ::

Nitrogen and phosphorus, 

The light’s dirty evolution.

Now we crawl down from

The mountaintop with the others.

Will we bow

To this god,

The light 

Of death

And earth 

:: our body’s particulate bodies

Every word :: a prayer

The prayer :: a practice

The practice :: endurance 

We persist.

It’s not a world

Waiting for disaster

But we who are disaster

And always have been

We dirty our foreheads

Prayers are practices

And bodies are light waiting to disperse

–

A review in poetry of

And when the light comes it will be so fantastic

Poems by Kristen Berget 

Translated by Kathleen Maris Paltrineri

Hugs,

-Eric

Robert Eric Shoemaker

Website

If you’d like to catch up on previous posts, visit “newsletter posts” from the menu on my website and enter the password: poetryismagic!

A person sitting in a garden surrounded by flowers, holding a dog on a leash. The person has a beard and wears a gray long-sleeve shirt, while the dog appears happy and is wearing a red harness.
Photo credit Olivia Welsh

Eric (he/him) is a poet, translator, and interdisciplinary artist. He is the author of the forthcoming Magical Poetics (Bloomsbury), translator of the forthcoming Saint Catherine of Siena: Prayers (One Subject Press), and author of three hybrid poetry books: Ca’Venezia (Partial Press, 2021), an artist’s book of hybrid writing and visual art; We Knew No Mortality (Acta Publications, 2018), poetry and memoir; and the poetry chapbook 30 Days Dry (Thought Collection Publishing 2015).

Toodles!