Pandemic Poems: A Collaborative Project
By Kate Belew
Project Overview:
Pandemic Poems is a writing collaboration project created by the artist and poet, Kate Belew from Brooklyn, New York. The project aimed for subscribers and Kate, herself, to create a collaborative poem through email. The piece is then approved by each artist and posted to her blog. Pandemic Poems created a safe and creative outlet for artists during a time of uncertainty and instability. Check out the entire series on her blog, posted below.
https://www.pandemicpoems.org/
Oh Map, Oh Ballpoint Pen, Oh Water
Lexy Wanzell & Kate Belew
I stayed at the north end of hope,
waiting for something below to find me.
What wave does the bow of this ship surrender to for an answer?
Oh map, Oh ballpoint pen, Oh water,
you’ve become a holy trinity I never prayed to until recently,
and at this altar of window I say,
Where do sins go when they drown?
And do they give up easily?
This is the part where sea foam fills my bones.
A new marrow that knows to swim,
and sink all at once.
Something About Scorpions
Lexy Wanzell & Kate Belew
I loved him in three’s.
Counting came naturally,
though you can’t count to infinity.
Or at least I can't. Not today.
Today, I remember him as one,
and that's how I am too.
Some song that I don’t remember though have always loved,
Something about banjos and the way sound moves across time, space, and skin.
I miss the desert these days and wish we were there.
Something about the collision of our heat with the sand beneath us.
Something about scorpions.
And the way their sting never compared to skin on skin.
I loved him in threes.