Another Poem to Love

On Matt Donovan's "Here the Thing with Feathers Isn't Hope"The first and so far only time I fired a gun was when I was a kid. Maybe a teenager but I don’t think so, not quite. We were visiting my uncle Bee in Tennessee and one night, not long after dark, he asked us if … Continue reading When the first thought isn't always the best thought

on Camille Dungy's "Notes on what is always with us"Near the end of spring break in 2020, back when we thought maybe we’d be able to control Covid with a couple of weeks of lockdown, my uncle Dave went into the ICU and straight onto a ventilator. Over the next two weeks, he died twice … Continue reading The Need to Swim with Predators

and "Love Poem Beginning with a Yellow Cab" by José OlivarezThis is a love story. This is the story of how I fell in love with poetry and what it can do to me. Is it going to be corny? Oh hell yes. So let’s get in this TARDIS over here, the dingy one that … Continue reading An Origin Story of Sorts

"One More Attempt at Disaster Preparedness" by Jeannine Hall GaileyI’ve been feeling my age of late, or trying to unfeel it perhaps. My gym app has a “feature” that tells me my biological age, which is of course much higher than my calendar age because for a great many years (read most of my life) … Continue reading Another Poem to Love, Attempt 1

I guess an introduction is as good a place to start as any. I’m Brian Spears. I’ve been a poetry editor at The Rumpus since it went live in 2009, and I published a collection of poems back in 2011 titled A Witness in Exile with Louisiana Literature Press. I have some copies in my … Continue reading Welcome to Another Poem to Love

This is Another Poem to Love.

I'm a little late on mentioning these, but I've had two pieces get some space lately. The first is this poem in HAD, titled "Memory as Matryoshka Doll." It's the first visual/concrete poem I believe I've ever had published, and it deals with some of my childhood sexual abuse trauma and the ways that infected … Continue reading Publication News

I never celebrated the holidays growing up, so I don't have the same childhood memories of Christmas and Santa, reindeer and caroling and all the other things generally linked to this time of year. When I think back about those years, I tend to remember moments of awkwardness, explaining to classmates why I didn't get … Continue reading Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

When the LEGO Movie 2 came out last year (Jesus, was it really only last year? I had to look that up), we saw it in the theaters, twice. Remember when that was a thing? It's a terrific movie, but the one moment that has really resonated with me is the song that comes on … Continue reading Maybe Aim For Not Bad