Poetry reading by Stofia Starnes, Poet Laureate of Virgina at Pen Arts Building

To hear a poet read her own work is more than a pleasure; it is a privilege that the NLAPW tries to bring to as many as possible. We were able to provide that gift to the D.C. Dupont Circle community on Saturday, October 19th. Poet Laureate of Virginia Sofia M. Starnes read a selection of her poems in a program that included NLAPW Board of Directors member Nina Brooks harp music as well.

If you missed the event at the Pen Arts, you can still see Ms. Starnes reading from her book on this video:
Sofia M. Starnes reading from her book.

We are proud to welcome her to the NLAPW as an active member-at-large. Two of her poems will be included in the upcoming issue of the Pen Woman magazine which is going to press in the next couple of days. NLAPW members will receive the magazine as part of membership, but nonmembers don’t have to miss out; order your advance copy on our Pen Woman magazine page.

Here is a a poem that, as Ms. Starnes says, she is glad has found a home on our Poem of the Week:

Archetypes

They never were, they always are—
these children who run heaven in our midst,
who populate our parks,
who lose their daily grit on graveyard walks
but find it in the gravel of their shoes…
We are far stronger than you are, they think;
We are alive and you are not.

I never met them, but I always knew
the yellow moths that brushed against their cheeks.

You’ve heard me say “Elena” for a girl,
and “Carlos” for the anonymous young boy;
they run home, so the rule says,
when it rains,
they rush off, so my eyes fear, when it storms.
They play, unpausing, with the village brood,
where children seem less clear, less separate—

I never met them, but I always knew
about the notes their oyster-pockets hold.

What do they say?
How do they pick the words?
I’m sure that Carlos writes his in a haste—
he, of the archetypal kind, who’ll lift a sword
without excessive qualm,
but who remains a child before the dark.

When shall I draw them out, free from the woods,
he and Elena, and others, fresh from myth?
When will their muddy feet, heard two by two,
turn to the open air of Burnley Street?
That day, they’ll cease their darting in and out
and come in pairs (or halves) as humans do—

They’ll live in houses, light their fires, and read
about the young who’ll kiss their eyes and be.

by Sofia M. Starnes
Member at Large

Visit Ms. Starnes’s website for more info about her work and her projects by clicking here.