Say enough but not too much.
Be kind but don’t present
the other cheek.
Move over but never out of sight.
Dim the lights
but search the shadows.
Remember what can help
you live,
but not what kills.
Speak up but listen to those
whose voices
have been throttled.
Make the first move or last,
but model dignity
as you go.
Never the devil’s advocate.
Only mapmaker,
poet, gardener:
putting your small corner
of the world
together again.
______
It was 1989. Minnie Bruce Pratt’s extraordinary poetry collection won that year’s prestigious Lamont Prize. Firebrand, a publisher we shared, released the book and it moved me in ways I find difficult to describe. I too was a mother. I too had come out as a lesbian. I couldn’t imagine losing my children for that or any other reason. I also deeply admired poets who grappled with difficult issues and wrote poems about them that worked. Because of our similar world vision, I have long felt that my poetry is in conversation with hers. Years later, I would meet and have an opportunity to work with Minnie Bruce. I’m deeply honored to contribute these few words to her memory. —M.R.
Memento Mori by Alexa Garvoille
Fimmene, Fimmene by Jessica Rae Bergamino
Bayou La Terre by Stacey Balkun
Become, or whatever marriage is equal to is not nearly enough by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Never the Devil’s Advocate by Margaret Randall
