Gabrielle Calvocoressi: keeping it wild

Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s new collection of poetry, The New Economy, was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. Other collections include The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart, Apocalyptic Swing, and Rocket Fantastic, which is the winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. They serve on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets and live in Old East Durham, NC, where joy, compassion, and social justice are at the center of their personal and poetic practice.Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of PlushI hear the level Bee—A Jar across the Flowers goesTheir Velvet MasonryWithstands until the sweet AssaultTheir Chivalry consumes—While He, victorious tilts awayTo vanquish other Blooms.AndHis Feet are shod with Gauze—His Helmet, is of Gold,His Breast, a Single OnyxWith Chrysophrase, inlaid.His Labor is a Chant—His Idleness—a Tune—Oh, for a Bee’s experienceOf Clovers, and of Noon!A big welcome to new listeners and Substack subscribers! If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes may be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes.(Lentan Cistern 43)Every Day but SundayGabrielle CalvocoressiFormless as a cloud building orDispersed as on April’s pollen eyesBlooming Open open shakingside to side As is there want. Myhead Lolls back and forth on the stemFrom my shoulders Justin comes throughthe side gate fields of him if Itake my glasses off he’s everywherelook we’re trumpet and coronaone body and box full of beeswhere he’s headed the smoke from thesmoker that covers us both waxsome pine needles whatever hehas around it makes us smell likechurch I say lulled leave my glassesoff I’m all petals and nectarwe’re one hum one gold breeze intothe colony that eases healskills reforms itself around usI inhale lean into goldenmusk of us assembled what ifthis was all my body my stemmy bulb my roots my endlessness.People, places, and ideas mentioned:Mabel Loomis ToddEdward Dickinson(The trains did, in fact, come to Amherst in 1853 as I stated in the interview. To read more about the railroad and Edward’s role in bringing them to town, you can try this link. And this one.)Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem,“God’s Grandeur” ties in Gaby’s reference to him talking about feet being “shod”Eliza Richards, Dickinson scholarJen Bervin and her extraordinary workSusan HoweRadcliffe Institute at Harvard UniversityKate Bowler (and she has a podcast!)Nystagmus (visual disability)Mary Oliver (and her poem, “Wild Geese”)Anne SextonSylvia PlathLyn Hejinian, My LifeThe Regulator Bookshop, Durham, North CarolinaModern Nature: The Journals of Derek JarmanLucille Clifton, The Clifton House in BaltimoreElizabeth BishopJune JordanAudre LourdeSapphoYannis RitsosHomer’s The Iliad – I got it wrong and led Gaby astray, that new translation is in fact done by Emily Wilson (not Alice Oswald). However, you can watch Alice Oswald interview Emily Wilson about it here.Other Dickinson poems mentioned:My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -Recorded March 26, 2026.There’s still some room for the reading, conversation, & Q&A with Kelli Russell Agodon!An upcoming stand-alone workshop that might be of interest: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe