ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Gretchen Primack is the author of two poetry collections, Doris' Red Spaces (Mayapple Press 2014) and Kind (Post-Traumatic Press 2013). Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Field, Poet Lore, Ploughshares, and other journals. Also an animal advocate, she co-wrote the memoir The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals (Penguin Avery 2012).
Also by Gretchen Primack:
Doris' Red Spaces
Kind
The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals (with Jenny Brown)
The Slow Creaking of Planets
July 27, 2016
Knowledge (East Wing)
Eastern Correctional
I honor life by not taking it anymore. Not a fish's life.
Not a calf's. No one's brother or child.
I did violence. I put it between my teeth
and it formed my blood, and I took blood.
Now I eat what they ate in Eden before violence.
Now I ask forgiveness for the life I’ve taken
that wasn't mine to take — the man, and the calves
and fishes, the chicks and their mothers.
The cops laugh. Their work is domination.
They lord over, and some men on the block
call themselves kings. But I am done with that
in every soul of me, every body.
This poem is part of a new manuscript, Corrections, that explores the world of a maximum-security men's prison, primarily through persona poems. Though I've spent a lot of time in such facilities, the vast majority of the poems aren't in the voices of men I know but imaginary men inspired by them. This poem is an exception: "Knowledge" is based squarely on someone I met who, like me, is an activist on behalf of non-human animals. This man, Intelligent, developed an anti-violence philosophy while incarcerated as part of his rehabilitation, and in doing so "extended his circle of compassion to include all living things," as Albert Schweitzer urges. To Intelligent, violence is violence, whether it is to a man or a hen. He maintained a vegan lifestyle within prison walls, an enormous challenge. He's since been released and continues his peace activism. I wanted to honor him and his philosophy, and share his message of compassion, in Corrections.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published weekly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
