On Listening to Jericho Brown

After the Summer Reading Series at NYU, 2019

Writing with urgency: an aching desire
a rising hunger in a parched throat

when the craft and empathy are inseparable
seething feeling resonating with tenderness and sorrow

a zoetic language: a soft growl turning into a wail
haunting which resonates leaving me like a thrumming harp wire

such is the riveting effect of his words
an unraveling of the intricate mind;

a mind with aching desire, a nuanced understanding
of the turmoil which surrounds and is within us

a hunger which he experiences
while writing a truth that readily burns

a hunger that clings to my ribs thick as greed
and never leaves.A longing; a desire

for the unnamed passions in my soul
a cleaving opening my transgressions

and I face the proximity of my desires
like standing next to a burning kiln

how it warms me up, the unstoppable
whirling into the unknown. Swallowed like a dream

reaching the end of the abyss, where
everything seems so surreal

reminds me of the moment where it all began
as I stand in admiration. Speechless.

By Megha Sood

Megha Sood is an Assistant Poetry Editor for the Literary Journal MookyChick and a Literary Partner with the “Life in Quarantine” Stanford University, USA. Her works are widely published in literary journals and anthologies including Better than Starbucks, Gothamist, Poetry Society of New York, Madras Courier, Borderless Journal, WNYC Studios, Kissing Dynamite, American Writers Review, FIVE:2: ONE, Quail Bell, Dime show review, etc. Three-time State-level Winner NAMI Dara Axelrod NJ Poetry Contest 2018/2019/2020 and First Place National Winner Spring Robinson Lit Prize 2020, Finalist in Pangolin Poetry Prize 2019, Adelaide Literary Award 2019 and Erbacce Prize 2020, Nominated for the iWomanGlobalAwrads 2020 and many more. Works selected numerous times by Jersey City Writers group and Department of Cultural Affairs for the Arts House Festival. Editor of ( “The Medusa Project, Mookychick) and ( “The Kali Project,” Indie Blu(e) Press). Chosen twice as the panelist for the Jersey City Theater Center Online Series “Voices Around the World”.She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.