In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we spotlight the life and work of poet, author, visual artist, and musician, Shira Erlichman. Her poems explore recovery \u2013 of language, of home, of mind. Her poetry book Odes to Lithium centers around her experiences with mental illness. Her picture book Be/Hold: A Friendship Book uses compound words to illuminate what is possible when we come together. Her work has been featured in Buzzfeed Reader, The Rumpus, PBS NewsHour\u2019s Poetry Series, The Huffington Post, The Seattle Times, and The New York Times, among others. Source
This episode includes a reading of her poem, "Mind Over Matter", featured in our 2022 and 2023 Get Lit Anthology.
"Mind Over Matter"
I tried. But mind over matter is a joke. The mind
is matter. Someone\u2019s unprofessional opinion
was to \u201crelax\u201d over matter. To sandcastle over
wave. They aimed to clean up a murder scene
from behind a plate of glass. It was my murder.
Mine. As if I could possess the firegrief that
possessed me. Wrestle the wind to the floor for
daring enter my house. But it\u2019s just me down
there, gripping my shoulders, threatening my
own heart. Have you ever seen the dark split
into two peaches? Sickness is a lot like that.
To the uninitiated it looks like fruit. Wise, shiny,
certifiably cherry. Do you mind if I die while I
say it? Rot that my teeth met: my fault. Would it
matter if I tried while I died? Will you relax
the coffin into the soil? If you don\u2019t have blood
on your hands by the end of this you weren\u2019t
listening.
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