"Doin' the Louvre"

Paris, December 1991
For Patricia Zamora

You're a junkie just like I am.

After we dump your husband in the Louvre's cafe
to sip the steaming tea and chew on his poetry,
we're off like schoolgirls, screeching in duet,
dazzled by the bright eternal gasp of ancient things.

We've got no business here, homegirl and compañera,
we've got no business working our mouths around
this sharp, exquisite language, or savoring the sweet
tongue-squeeze of pastries, glossy cakes and shaved chocolate.

We're of simpler stock--city and country dust,
collard greens, hopscotch, moonpies, bullet holes
and basement slow dances. We are shamelessly American,
rough street girls with rusty knees, the flip side of cocky
Parisian wisps in slim cashmere coats the color of tobacco.

Girlfriend, you and I are *too* much scream for this place,
but you're a junkie just like I am.

-- Excerpt from "Doin' the Louvre" by Patricia Smith

#TodaysPoem #Poetry #PatriciaSmith

Winners of 76th National Book Award Announced in New York City

National Book Award winners announced in New York City, celebrating the best literature published in the United States.
https://publishingperspectives.com/2025/11/winners-of-76th-national-book-award-announced-in-new-york-city/

#DanielNayeri #GabrielaCabezonCamara #NationalBookAwards #OmarElAkkad #PatriciaSmith

I'M CO-HOSTING TONIGHT!

Kogan After Hours, 5-7 pm Sunday, 7/7/24, WGN Radio 720AM, Chicago

Singer Irene Michaels w/a new song & show Tuesday @ Jazz Showcase; poet/musician/tour guide JJ Tindall w/new work @YouTube; Literary HOF president Don Evans talking about Fuller Award winner poet Patricia Smith.

Please join us!

#chicago #jazz #poetry #patriciasmith #irenemichaels #literaryhalloffame

Here the poem Siblings by #PatriciaSmith. We visited her in her home in New Jersey for a research about #climatefiction. The hurrican literature is part of this large stream in the environmental literature. The #hurricane #Katrina was subject to a lot of books, let alone three poem books.
One is #BloodDazzler by Smith.

Here you can listen to 3 hours about climate change in literature, download this week at #Deutschlandradio

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/eine-lange-nacht-vom-klima-in-der-literatur-der-planet-100.html

The brilliant Patricia Smith performs a poem from Blood Dazzler.

https://youtu.be/Tm0w6BqyQFI

#TodaysPoem #SpecialEdition #Poetry #Poem #PatriciaSmith