Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: Angelique Zobitz
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
July 2024 Poet: Angelique Zobitz
Love Letter to The Revolution No. 2
Sweets,
When I was a child, my mother and aunts would sit in the kitchen
gossiping—bathed in moonlight, diffused through—a dream,
wine, religion, and success.
I hold the stars between my teeth—your tumults, your marriages,
aches, and your deaths—to fashion a world that will hold all
the promised to come,
in her outstretched palm. I’ll teach you a poem: show me someone
not full of herself and I’ll show
you a hungry person.
Drink: laugh and dance and sing and play.
If you don’t look back, the future never happens.
Where are we going, without you?
Source
Seraphim, CavanKerry Press, 2024
Poet bio
Angelique Zobitz (she/her/hers) is the author of the chapbooks Burn Down Your House from Milk & Cake Press and Love Letters to the Revolution from American Poetry Journal. Her work has been a 2022 Jake Adam York finalist, 2022 Philip Levine Prize semifinalist, 2022 St. Lawrence finalist, 2022 Tupelo Prize finalist, and 2021 Georgia Poetry Prize finalist. Nominated multiple times for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize, her poems have appeared in The Journal, Sugar House Review, Obsidian: Literature & Arts of the African Diaspora, and many others.