Ren Powell - We Start with the Skin (United States/Norway)

from #BreakTheBias by Various

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about

Ren Powell is a writer and teaching artist. She is a native Californian – now a Norwegian citizen settled on the west coast of Norway.

Ren Powell has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. She has been a member of The Norwegian Author’s Union since 2005 and has published six full-length collections of poetry and more than two dozen books of translations with traditional publishing houses. Her sixth poetry collection The Elephants Have Been Singing All Along was published in 2017 by Wigestrand Publishing.

Her collections have been purchased by the Norwegian Arts Council for national library distribution, and her poems have been translated and published in eight languages.

Ren is currently focusing on hand-bound poetry collections, mixed media experimental poetry forms. She is publishing new work under the umbrella of Mad Orphan Lit.

renpowell.com

lyrics

WE START WITH THE SKIN

We see first, think
How obvious it is. Then,
how much it gives away

How it becomes
terrain, shaping as we move
maps of lines
coded in creases and scars

How it reveals
the ridges of twisting
bones veering off, and

There is a blossoming of red mouths
across my stomach
mumbling snide remarks
that make me squirm in my clothes
all day

There is a fever that comes and goes all night
even my forearms sweat
And I try to make friends with it

these growing pains
this shutting down

what freedoms it will bring
what dreams will come
what dreams will be overcome

secrets etched on a flake of dandruff

As a consequence of the story—
telling, drama happens

everything falls apart
but not away:

I am a raven’s nest
of shiny odds and ends

buttons that close nothing
attach no intensions, make no mistake

I am a loose gathering
of loose talents

in a tackle box in my granddaughter’s crafts room
and she will piece something together

a framework
a new skin to hold it all together

for a new, little while from her perspective
of what was my body in the world

credits

from #BreakTheBias, released March 8, 2022
CREDITS:
'We Start with the Skin' is from the book' The Elephants Have Been Singing All Along', Wigrestrand Publishing, 2017.