Distanced: Igor Brezhnev
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“Distanced” is designed to connect artists impacted by COVID-19 with potential patrons.
To support Igor, we ask that our readership contribute through the following links:
Venmo: @IgorBrezhnev
You can also support Igor by contributing to Lightship Press and purchasing a book or album from any of their phenomenal poets
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keep being human
the empty shelves in stores
and snaking queues for rations,
place numbers written on our wrists,
this was moscow of early nineties and
here it is again, now in l.a., a flashback,
so i say to you, it will pass, though it is
up to you to keep being human, hard
thing to do in whipped fear, but i do
believe in you. gentle, tender walk
through these times, my friends,
it is better to be hungry than to
become a sharp-edged stone.
a quiet spring
one day you may
call this a quiet spring,
when we drew collective
breath and held it for a time.
then we exhaled, later, empty,
a bit lightheaded, and giddy for
the sun to warm our skin, so ready
to breathe again—steady, dear ones,
steady. move one flower petal at a time.
and if i could i’d hold your hands through
all of it and give you bouquets of dandelions
every morning in mason jars of cold water
from mountain streams. i’d whisper dawn
to every home with pancakes and maple
syrup and fresh peaches cut in slices,
i’d wake you up with chicory coffee
and the kind of blues you dance to.
wake up, wake up and dance, you
are only holding breath for now.
the spring is quiet, but, look
the flowers are blooming.
Igor Brezhnev is a poet and a book designer, among his other sins. He is the founder of Wordlights poetry reading series (facebook.com/wordligthspoetry & wordlightspoetry.com) and of Lightship Press (lightshippress.com), a small press focused on publishing poetry. Igor has two full length collections of poetry published by Liquid Gravity Publishing, ‘dearest void’ (2016) and ‘america is a dry cookie and other love stories’ (2018), a spoken word album ‘Good Days & Bad Days’ (Lightship Press, 2018, igorbrezhnev.bandcamp.com), as well as a couple of self-published chapbooks in ‘nights since’ series which focuses on emotional landscape of being without a home. You can support Igor at patreon.com/igorbrezhnev and get daily poems & weekly audio recordings. More information about Igor can be found at igorbrezhnev.com.
Learn more about "Distanced: Artists Under Quarantine" here.
