Loom Poem
I window words into a name
a light kiss on his chest
I trace
the letter t
its seep whisper
morning scatter
mosquito grasses
curtained yucca
I snakeweed another name
collapse worn tongues into hymns
memories against
pink lights against
bone
bone
pink lights against
memories against
collapse worn tongues into hymns
I snakeweed another name
curtained yucca
mosquito grasses
morning scatter
its seep whisper
the letter t
I trace
a light kiss on his chest
I window words into a name
Copyright © 2025 by Jake Skeets. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 17, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Loom poems were a way back into writing poetry—for me. During the pandemic, like everyone else, I had a hard time writing. So I began revising. I went through all the poems from my first book and revised them. Some of them became these loom poems. Inspired by Diné weavers who weave from the bottom up and often mirror the top and bottom halves. Where they meet is a kind of horizon. It’s an old arithmetic that helped me find my way back into poetry.”
—Jake Skeets
Jake Skeets
Jake Skeets’s debut collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers (Milkweed, 2019), was selected by Kathy Fagan for the 2018 National Poetry Series.