Hangman Poem: One Player Puzzle
___________
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__ __ __ __ __ __ Y __ __ __ __
Category: A philosophical phrase
Clues:
1. Lock: Damn it … not everyone believes what you believe!
Morpheus: My beliefs do not require them to.
—The Matrix Reloaded
2. It is achieved in solitude but never by separation.
3. No trinity—the ocean moves as one body, never confused with a
collection of raindrops.
4. Morning dew has a way more iconic metamorphosis than the butterfly,
sadly said no one.
5. It is Spring under a Bodhi Tree awakening to the Earth holding you—in
wooden arms against grass-hilled breasts—the Earth is always holding you.
6. The moment a raindrop touches the ocean, it becomes the whole ocean.
7. “Even if you are not ready for the day, it cannot always be night”—G. Brooks
“... the devil my opp”—K. West
(—YouTube fan mashup)
8. Fail and hang, death can’t save you—rebirth starts this game over.
9. Raindrops in the ocean suffer imposter syndrome;
10. there are no raindrops in the ocean—it is honing this sole wisdom.
11. This is the single most important answer of your life to get right.
Copyright © 2025 by Anacaona Rocio Milagro. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 21, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Desperate for divination, this poem possessed me a decade ago during a tarot card reading. The diviner announced the ‘Hanged Man’ before placing the card down, and I imagined the word puzzle. Once I saw the card and learned its meaning, the image of the word puzzle remained and took residence in a corner of my mind. It has tortured me ever since, demanding to be written and blocking its completion. (A stubborn poem.) For years I attempted to finish it and could not. Then upon receiving the invite to Poem-a-Day—to my surprise—the poem flowed, and I finished it within minutes. ‘Diva!’ I snarled. ‘You wanted your own stage, huh?’”
—Anacaona Rocio Milagro
Anacaona Rocio Milagro
Anacaona Rocio Milagro is a Dominican poet and the author of To Make an Island of a Street Corner (Black Freighter Press, 2024). A Cave Canem Fellow, she is from and lives in New York City.