Happy Valentine's Day 2021 ~

Dear Pandemic Valentine,

As you know, I have a fondness for typewriters and I was reading about a red Italian designed typewriter named "Valentine" from Olivetti in 1969. What I loved was that when you opened your new typewriter, they included this in the user guide: Dear Valentine, this is to tell you that you are my friend as well as my Valentine, and that I intend to write you lots of letters...

And that little sentence brought to mind one of my favorite poems by Agha Shahid Ali, "Stationery," which I thought would be the perfect poem to share with you today:
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Stationery
      by Agha Shahid Ali

The moon did not become the sun.
It just fell on the desert
in great sheets, reams
of silver handmade by you.
The night is your cottage industry now,
the day is your brisk emporium.
The world is full of paper.

Write to me.
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If there is a silver lining to what we've been living through this last year, I hope that's it's given you more time to write letters, read more, and write more poems. 

I hope this valentine finds you as well as possible and even better than that. Sending you Valentines wishes from a very snowy Pacific Northwest, 

xo, 
Kelli

 

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Poetry Stuff & Shenanigans:
 
You can now preorder Dialogues with Rising Tides from Copper Canyon Press (available April 2021!) 

Zoom Class: The Surrealists' Toolbox: Generating New Poems from the Subconscious, Saturday, May 1, 2021 from 10 am - 2:30 am PST with Kelli & Susan Rich

Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize (17 - 24 page of poems) is now open! Judge: Victoria Chang

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Kelli Russell Agodon
Poet/Writer/Editor, Two Sylvias Press   kelli@agodon.com Website: www.agodon.com