What Has Been Spoken & Make a Daisy Chain With Morning & Breathing That Cannot Be Taught

By Kailey Tedesco and Emi Bergquist

What Has Been Spoken

Paperweighted and cadaverous,
my mouth unhinges, careens — in it, a nest of bees 
extracting nectar at a flowering pace.

There are no words for what has been spoken 
tinged with the absence of a thing
my breath has become lethal.

I tell no one —
a stinging inhale, my insides storm. 
I carve out the mountain with a soft blade of sea.

by Jackie Braje, Emi Bergquist, Kate Belew

Make a Daisy Chain with Morning

Weave the flooding sunlight with birdsong—
a sunlight white like thought, a birdsong long like love—
we imagine there is a different world out there 
where no matter how bitter the coffee, we share this cup together
and no matter the daggers of palm fronds, we accept the shade they offer us;
here, take my fingers — 
calloused from seasons without rest, 
and sifting the wind for a good thing
we can bring them together 
like the hard varied fibers of a soft lace,
link by link, we become the patterned thread.

By Cierra Martin and Emi Bergquist

Breathing that Cannot be Taught

Put the distance of a building between you and someone else,
the ghosts will silently roll off 
our tongues, 
you won't notice right away but the dust will begin to collect 
in the corner of your room. Waiting
never looked so tired — an elegant simulation
or, a kind of breathing that cannot be taught,
so this is the forge of due diligence
a bewitched coupling, our mothers would call it
resplendent, a splash of cool air.

When New York City shutdown in March 2020 due to Covid-19, a group of artists began writing poems via e-mail. They went line for line and sent it back and forth. This is a selection from this collaboration.
Find more and follow along with the project at pandemicpoems.org

Emi Bergquist: Brooklyn based poet originally from Idaho, Emi's work often explores the intersection of identity, sexuality, nature, love, and loss. Since 2015, she has been an active associate of The Poetry Society of New York, a regular cast member of The Poetry Brothel where she has helped produce immersive poetry experiences across the country, an editor of Milk Press Books, and most recently, a collaborator on Pandemic Poems. More of her work can be found under her stage name: https://www.monahmayhem.com/ or by following @emuloo on Instagram.

Kate Belew is a Brooklyn Based poet and writer from the midwest. Kate is currently running the Pandemic Poems project at pandemicpoems.org and has also participated in projects of writing with Publisher's Weekly, Poets House, The National Book Critics Circle, The Poetry Society of New York, Milk Press, The Poetry Brothel, and The Alchemist's Kitchen, among others. She has her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College where she taught at the BSGE and Westchester Correctional Facility. You can learn more about her work here or follow her at @k8belew

Jackie Braje is a Brooklyn based poet. She is the Programs Director of The Poetry Society of New York, the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Milk Press, and a Poetry MFA candidate at Brooklyn College. Her work has appeared in The Quarterless Review, Everything in Aspic, The Minnesota Review, The Nottingham Review, Brooklyn Poets, Vagabond City, Waccamaw, Bridge Eight, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2019 Brooklyn Poets Fellowship and a 2020 Mineral School Artist Residency.

Kailey Tedesco is the author of She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publishing), Lizzie, Speak, and the forthcoming collection FOREVERHAUS (White Stag Publishing). For more information about her writing, please follow @kaileytedesco. 

Cierra Martin is a Brooklyn based poet and writer. She holds dual Bachelors degrees from Hunter College in English Literature and Media Criticism. She has worked with The Poetry Society of New York, The Poetry Brothel, Milk Press, and as a teaching artist with Hunter College. She was also the recipient of the Mary McElligott Gloster Award in 2018. You can follow her on Instagram @d.vuh