Poem in Which I Only Use Vowels
Poem in which I have wisdom. Poem in which I have a father. Poem in which I care. Poem in which I am from another country. Poem in which I Spanish. Poem in which flowers are important. Poem in which I make pretty gestures. Poem in which I am a Deceptacon. Poem in which I am a novelist. Poem in which I use trash. Poem in which I am a baby. Poem in which I swaddle. Poem in which I bathe. Poem in which I am a box. Poem in which its face is everything. Poem in which faces are everywhere. Poem in which I swear. Poem in which I take an oath. Poem in which I make a joke. Poem in which I can’t move.
Credit
Copyright © 2018 by Paola Capó-García. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 12, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.
About this Poem
“I like writing list poems because I’m interested in insistence and association via language. I rarely plan my poems or start with notes, but I wanted to create a list of ideas for poems I would never actually end up writing—a list of scenarios that felt like familiar expectations of poems (e.g., flowers, prettiness, wisdom) and some that mapped out my own anxieties about poetry. I wanted a claustrophobic poem that also felt open and endless, where the speaker’s identity could shift and shift and shift.”
—Paola Capó-García
Author
Paola Capó-García
Paola Capó-García is a poet and translator from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Date Published
06/12/2018