This Is What America Looks Like, a newly launched Washington Writers’ Publishing House anthology of prose and poetry, has a provocative title. The title is what drew the Steiny Road Poet’s attention and she is pleased with the inclusion of her poem “the bell sonnet.” Among the poets appearing in this anthology are: Sandra Beasley, Teri Cross Davis, Don Illich, Rueben Jackson, Greg Luce, Jean Nordhaus, Linda Pastan, Kim Roberts, Myra Sklarew, and many other esteemed colleagues.
The form of my poem takes off from Sherman Alexie’s “Sonnet, Without Salmon.” This means there are 14 numbered parts. Here are the first three parts of “the bell sonnet”:
1. when the bell sounds the vibration heals
2. the man I called father hit a cowbell for comic relief and then blew smoke rings
3. in our twenties my friend whose name is pronounced bell but is spelled B e a l l said we must say boldly we are poets
Here’s one of the stanzas that speaks to the anthology’s title:
12. in 2045 Census projects the United States will become minority white at 49.8 percent with the Hispanic population at the next highest percent of 24.6
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