Saturday Poetry – Wild Beauty by Jessica Care Moore
Saturday Poetry – Wild Beauty by Jessica Care Moore
This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Wild Beauty’ by Jessica Care Moore. She is the author of several poetry collections, including We Want Our Bodies Back (HarperCollins, 2020), The Alphabet Verses The Ghetto (Moore Black Press, 2003), and The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth (Moore Black Press, 1997). Moore explained “I wrote the poem, ‘Wild Beauty,’ in the middle of the night. I was balancing heartbreak, isolation, friendship, and a longing for true love. I’d been reading a lot of Sylvia Plath and experimenting with the sound of my poems. They changed during the pandemic. I changed. Every line is more intentional. The visual quality of the poem was inspired by Virgil Abloh’s gorgeous short film, Peculiar Contrast, Perfect Light—solace and sadness. It was a difficult time for me, lots of loss, and still, I was searching for beauty, for love. I loved seeing my artist family, Yasiin Bey and Saul Williams, in the film, and I put them in the poem. I missed being connected to poets, to people. ‘Wild Beauty’ is one poem that led to my full experimental opera, the title inspired by the last book that Ntozake Shange signed for me before she passed away. The original wild beauty.”
For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Jessica Care Moore’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @darkkosmou with the captivating artwork complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions.
To view the others we have published in this section, go here.
via Poets.org
Saturday Poetry – Wild Beauty by Jessica Care Moore
Such a wild beauty
extracted from black ashes (echo)
A series of calculated crashes
I simply
call them romances.
I photograph you in my bed in the morning
I miss you and you never leave
Your scent remains, unbelievably
I pray to all the Gods
and my lies still don’t believe in me.
You dance inside the snow
Slush beneath your boots
We talk philosophy and hardcover books
Sometimes i find the heart you took and carry
It around, a handsome crook
A savior among a crown
of thorns and petals never worn
Of flowers dead and letters never sent
Did you see the way the summer wept
Did you feel my bones break
inside your hands
?
How fragile are the strong and mad
Who dare to wrap themselves in flags
Sewn by slaves and walked over graves (echo)
Jessica, you say, you must behave.
Yourself. I don’t know what to do with wealth
Cept spend it on a love affair or place bright flowers
In my hair.
Just tell me what color I should wear to a funeral
with no people there?
Bodies asleep deep in my chest
Kiss me, since we are all that’s left
In love, in fear, scared half to death
Humans aren’t so interesting my son insists
We have no wings. No power beyond our century
We are given less, and still we sing.
We dress the part
I keep the veil, and pawn the rings.
I want to steal Saul’s new hat and Dante’s bright green boots
My fashionable brothers.
You. Brooklyn bridge. I am hula hoop
Swirling dervish in a perfect suit
Oh my love, my memory swoons.
Such a wild beauty extracted from black ashes (echo)
A series of calculated crashes
I simply call them beautiful massive
Oh wait, I believe I wrote romances.
Protecting me from the brutality, the wounded savage
You, that’s me. Pointing fingers deliciously.
Baby, please hold onto me.
I only want love to hold me for ransom. I know he is.
They are all so handsome. Perhaps, a very good looking cancer.
I call your name, pray you don’t answer.
Such a wild
beauty.
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Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
