Go Ahead in the Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib

And isn't it funny to vow that you will love someone until you are dead?ĪBDURRAQIB: When I think about the things I'm most interested in writing in my poems, it's always about the kind of interior condition that comes with some type of anguish or heartbreak. From below, a man yells, there are only three ingredients. And I imagine this is no longer over cheese but over every mode of unfulfilled promise, the cluster of sins still stuck to a body fresh from the waters of baptism, the parent who must dig a grave for their youngest child.

And the argument below has poured out into the streets and the waiting masses. And what a tragedy to spend it on a half-finished freedom. And what could be worse than the fraction of a dream behind every door you crawl to? It is Friday, and surely some of my people are praising the fresh coin in their bank accounts. If it gets too hot for love like it did for Mookie and Tina, then we're all on our own sinking islands anyway. To kick off our series, Abdurraqib reads from his poem 'Glamour On The West Streets, Silver Over Everything.'ĪBDURRAQIB: (Reading) I love the heat for how it separates the desire for touch from the practicality of it. The 35-year-old Ohio native also takes inspiration from music and the New York City poetry scene in the '60s. This month, we're celebrating National Poetry Month. But of course people noticed, and it began to spiral. The owner of one such pizza place kept trying to, like, push off pizzas that had no cheese on them to people as if they wouldn't notice. But this kind of weird and whimsical thing happened one Friday night where a lot of pizza places ran out of cheese. HANIF ABDURRAQIB: So I lived in New Haven, Conn., for a stretch. Sometimes the small, strange moments of daily life inspire writers.

Go Ahead in the Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib