The Imaginal Stage
By D. A. Powell
turns out
there are more planets than stars
more places to land
than to be burned
I have always been in love with
last chances especially
now that they really do
seem like last chances
the trill of it all upending
what’s left of my head
after we explode
are you ready to ascend
in the morning I will take you
on the wing
About This Poem
“An imago is, for many winged insects, the final form of its metamorphosis. The plural of imago is imagines, and this time in the insect’s life is called the imaginal stage. The insect at this point has reached sexual maturity and has also earned its wings.” —D. A. Powell
About The Poet
D. A. Powell was born in Albany, Georgia, on May 16, 1963. He attended Sonoma State University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1991 and his master’s in 1993. He received his MFA degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1996.
Powell is the author of the trilogy of books Cocktails (Graywolf Press, 2004), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Lunch (Wesleyan University Press, 2000), and Tea (Wesleyan University Press, 1998). His poetry collection Chronic(Graywolf Press, 2009) received the Kingsley Tufts Award and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. His most recent books are Repast: Tea, Lunch, Cocktails (Graywolf Press, 2014) and Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys: Poems(Graywolf Press, 2012).
Powell’s subjects range from movies, art, and other trappings of contemporary culture to the AIDS pandemic. Powell’s work often returns to AIDS; his first three collections have been called a trilogy about the disease. As Carl Phillips wrote in his judge’s note for Boston Review’s Annual Poetry Award for Powell’s work, “No fear, here, of heritage nor of music nor, refreshingly, of authority. Mr. Powell recognizes in the contemporary the latest manifestations of a much older tradition: namely, what it is to be human.”
Powell has received a Paul Engle Fellowship from the James Michener Center, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lyric Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America, among other awards.
Powell has taught at Columbia University, the University of Iowa, Sonoma State University, and San Francisco State University and served as the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Poetry at Harvard University. He currently teaches at the University of San Francisco.
2 comments:
Pope Francis said that one thing he does not like is that “we look at the so-called ‘sins of the flesh’ with a magnifying glass, just as we have done for so long for the sixth commandment.”
“If you exploited workers, if you lied or cheated, it didn’t matter, and instead sins below the waist were relevant,” he said.
When it comes to the individuals involved, “The most appropriate pastoral attitude for each person must be applied,” he said.
Francis insisted that as pastors, “We must not be superficial and naive, forcing people into things and behaviors for which they are not yet mature, or are not capable. It takes a lot of sensitivity and creativity to accompany people spiritually and pastorally.” I thought you and some of the guys here might enjoy this. Pope Francis isdoing his best to include LGBTQ people in the church. For me he's a ray of hope.
JimNS, I agree. Pope Francis is a different kind of Pope. He seems to be trying to help the LGBTQ+ community.
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