Published in Space Struck (Sarabande Books, 2019)
John’s thoughts…
So much of my experience in the world is just like, resistant to language which makes it hard for me to understand. Like, I find it very difficult to describe my anxiety, until I read a Paige Louis poem which they write… (reads the poem excerpt)
…
And I also need poetry because it helps me imagine other people and their experiences more complexly. And so working with the aforementioned Paige Louis, we started a new YouTube channel, in collaboration with The Poetry Foundation called “Ours Poetica”. It features a poem read to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The readers might be poets like, Paige Louis, or non-poets like Shayleen Woodly. I think there are a lot of people out there who love poetry, but just don’t yet *know* that they love poetry. And this channel is for you!
Vlogbrothers | I, Too, Dislike It
(Unquoted portion)
On the train, a man snatches my book,
reads the last line, and says, I completely get you,
you’re not that complex. He could be right—lately
all my what ifs are about breath: What if
a glassblower inhales at the wrong
moment? What if I’m drifting on a sailboat
and the wind stops? If he’d ask me how I’m
feeling, I’d give him the long version—
I feel
as if I’m on the moon listening to the air hiss
out of my spacesuit, and I can’t find the hole. I’m
the vice president of panic, and the president is
missing.
(Remainder of the poem)
Most nights, I calm myself by listing
animals still on the Least Concern end of the
extinction spectrum: aardvarks and blackbirds
are fine. Minnows thrive—though this brings
me no relief—they can swim through sludge
if they have to. I don’t think I’ve ever written
the word doom, but nothing else fits.
Every experience seems both urgent and
unnatural—like right now, this train
is approaching the station where my beloved
is waiting to take me to the orchard, so we can
pay for the memory of having once, at dusk,
plucked real apples from real trees.
John Green Reads Poetry 