Artist Highlight: Gabrielle Bates
Dear Birmingham
I’ve been visiting again
the cemetery
with a sunken southern corner.
Fish smaller than first teeth, birthed from the soil,
maneuver in the glaze
where rain pools, covering the lowest stones.
maneuver in the glaze
where rain pools, covering the lowest stones.
Behind him, in a cracked white tub,
my knees to his sides,
left ear pressed to
the stack of bones in his neck,
my knees to his sides,
left ear pressed to
the stack of bones in his neck,
I was once so terrified of my own contentment
I bit my shoulder
and drew blood there
I bit my shoulder
and drew blood there
to the surface—past it—
What I have wanted most
is many lives. One for each longing,
round and separate.
is many lives. One for each longing,
round and separate.
Sometimes I bring figs here, asphyxiating
in plastic, for their distant echo
of your humid, ghost-flesh air
shouldering the leaves—that almost-a-human
air—
in plastic, for their distant echo
of your humid, ghost-flesh air
shouldering the leaves—that almost-a-human
air—
I was born in autumn
as it fled underground
to be fed to a body
of water that only swallows.
as it fled underground
to be fed to a body
of water that only swallows.
“This poem is haunted, as I am, by my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, and other unbreakable tethers. The bivalve form of the poem, with that single line as a hinge in the middle, has been recurring in my work lately. There’s something drawing me to that visual interruption near the halfway point. Love—for another person, a place, the self—requires that we wrestle with limitations. I often go to poetry for that sort of wrestling.”
—Gabrielle Bates
—Gabrielle Bates
Gabrielle Bates is a writer and visual artist originally from Birmingham, Alabama. She is currently living in Seattle and works for Open Books: A Poem Emporium and co-hosts the podcast The Poet Salon.
I came across Gabrielle Bates through Instagram (hello virtual world! You're good to us, after all. ^_*) and it's one of those moments I pinch myself because this space is becoming more and more my dreams of many moons realized -- a family of creatives.
When asked what's inspiring her lately, she candidly responded:
"my grandmother’s coffee cup, French movies, animals, snake earrings, friends, Padraig O Tuama’s podcast Poetry Unbound, Rodin sculptures, the histories of words, mortality, daydreaming…"
Her debut collection of poems, JUDAS GOAT, is forthcoming from Tin House in 2023.
Can't wait. xx