Isaac Pickell
@isaacpickell.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.1K following 170 posts
black & jewish poet & phd student in Detroit | work @blackoceanbooks.bsky.social and @blacklawrence.bsky.social and @deadmallpress.bsky.social | Cave Canem fellow | just very glad to be here.
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isaacpickell.bsky.social
On aging and possibility, or:

forty words for turning forty
for #smallpoemsunday

@tomsnarsky.bsky.social
Middle age


i have traded blithe limbs
for fragile acts—all the days

i ever breathed
could crack as memory

[ i tender past like an egg; what else
might still grow].

i crane to heed
something so important

i leave my whole life for it.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
[and do subscribe to Chris' newsletter — it comes with a fresh perspective, it's funny and wise, and it's full of new things to read.]
isaacpickell.bsky.social
Easily the most seen I've ever felt in review—

"these dense bricks that aren’t so heavy you can’t carry them, but you know you’ve got a bag of bricks slung over your shoulder."

<<>>

If that sounds good, buy this book? I'm quite sure you'll love its weight.

www.blackocean.org/catalog1/its...
isaacpickell.bsky.social
Chris! Very glad to be in the good company of your bookshelf.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
abitchislive.bsky.social
Ok so in case yall missed the memo like I did. David Lehman, series editor of Best American Poetry is a Zionist ass. Literally feel embarrassed that I wound up in this situation. I was literally the only person of color in a room of 50+ people. It was terrifying.
#poetry #bestamericanpoetry
isaacpickell.bsky.social
University administrators must have real comfy beds to sleep through the night after sending out sub-living wage contracts to adjuncts every semester.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
I agree it won’t make other modes of thinking irrelevant, but it might make other modes of thinking unprofitable, and that may have the same effect.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
I like a great many of hers—long may she be read.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
oh no! she was fantastic.
Reposted by Isaac Pickell
tomsnarsky.bsky.social
happy birthday John Ashbery 🎈
I HAD THOUGHT THINGS
WERE GOING ALONG WELL


But I was mistaken.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
not for lack of trying!
isaacpickell.bsky.social
"we love what we love for as long as we can..."

She's right, it's not Act Three yet.
isaacpickell.bsky.social
Sometimes it's okay to write poems just because it's fun.
Early Retirement Plan


Rich kid poets have so much fun
doing their art, taking their risks,
stepping on necks when real life
people don’t really like their shit—
if my parents were paid, I’d buy
a silver palisade to wrap around
the whole city limits & announce
a parade to see my gilted words
until everyone knew the feelings
my bright gold brain had made.