I wanted more poetry in 2024. It wasn’t a resolution because I don’t make those. But I do make lists and I made two at the start of the year— one with LESS at the top and one with MORE. And under MORE the first thing I wrote was poetry. Thinking maybe if I read more poetry I would write more poetry. I had this romantic vision of idly wandering into a bookstore, finding the poetry section, randomly pulling a book off the shelf and immediately being awestruck by the words of some poet I had never heard of. But it didn’t happen. Not in all of January or the beginning of February. I found the old classics and was reminded of poets I loved, but nothing crazy struck and inspired me. Until this week. I was killing time in the Castro before meeting Jason for dinner (a spontaneous plan that he was surprisingly up for that made me appreciate his friendship even more) I went to the perfume store, Cliff’s (what I like to call the best gay hardware store in the city), and then wandered into Fabulosa Books.
I found the tiny poetry section all the way in the back and was at first sad at their seemingly small collection. But boy was it packed with goodies. I almost bought Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong whose work I do not own enough of, but then I spotted this neon yellow spine and immediately pulled out the slim volume. As soon as I saw the cover I knew this book was coming home with me— even if the words did nothing to move me. Having worked in book publishing for over a decade it’s my right to judge a book by its cover and this one was near perfect to me. But then I opened it up to a random page and knew within the first few lines I had found a new-to-me poet and I would devour her words which would probably inspire me to write more of my own. The book is I Do Everything I’m Told by Megan Fernandes, and just look at this cover.
You can read more about Fernandes here. I’m happy to see she has two more books I can read after I wear this one out. I am sad to see she was in SF this September reading at Green Apple Books and I missed her. Even though I had no idea who she was then. Here’s the poem I read while standing in Fabulosa Books:
Also the inside flaps are hot pink:
I want more scenes like the one I had in Fabulosa books where I just discover great poets. But I am also curious if there are any contemporary poets you love who I should know about. Tell me in the comments!