Philly Poetry Chapbook Review is pleased to feature nat raum’s poem “copper” as our first featured chapbook poem of Issue 6: November/December 2024. You can find more poetry in their chapbook, salt box now available from kith books.
copper
we were drinking.
we were drinking orange
wine in the heat of the waning
hours of the afternoon,
the sky slowly melting away to
match the sediment haze inside
the glass.
we were drinking orange
wine in the back of your scion
and it dawned on me that it’s
not often i get to feel like i am
sailing and crashing and burning
all at once (and i am constantly
afraid of setting fires)
i wonder why it was only
that afternoon that i didnt
taste the butane on that stolen cigarette,
that the throbbing in my
feet ceased to exist, that the hum of the
highway in the valley fell silent.
i wonder why and how i
got to be there just for
those few hours and if we had
stayed there, if the grass around
us would rise and consume us and
for how long.
we were drinking
wine and before
long it hit my palette just
like grape juice and the
stars emerged from
behind the greying clouds.
About the Poem
The poem was written using a method I developed while writing the chapbook it’s part of—I use the “Questions” feature on Instagram to collect random one-word prompts, then write from them. This piece was based on the word “copper” and presents an imagined scene in which myself and my estranged partner drank orange wine in the back of his old car.
Author Bio
nat raum (b. 1996) is a disabled artist, writer, and genderless disaster based on unceded Piscataway and Susquehannock land in Baltimore. They’re the editor-in-chief of fifth wheel press and the author of this book will not save you, the abyss is staring back, random access memory, and others. Past and upcoming publishers of their writing include Gone Lawn, Split Lip Magazine, beestung, and BRUISER. Find them online at natraum.com.
From salt box
salt box
traces longing and desire over the course of three long, grey Baltimore winters.
Contents
PCR is calling for submissions of original poetry for the first time between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15. We’re also opening to submissions of poem excerpts from full-length collections. Read this post for details!
Check out new poetry books for the week of 11/5 from Querencia Press, Grid Books, Finishing Line Press, Fireside Industries, Princeton University Press, BOA Editions Ltd, Bloodaxe Books, Button Poetry, University of Pittsburgh Press, Persea, W. W. Norton and Omnidawn.
Chapbook Poem: copper by nat raum
Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for November 2024, “copper” from salt box by nat raum, along with a few words from the poet.
Poetry Chapbooks (October 2024)
Check out our round-up of poetry chapbooks published in October 2024 by Two Sylvias Press, Yavanika Press, The Poetry Box, Variant Lit, Kith Books, Newfound, Black Lawrence Press, Diode Editions, Nine Syllables Press, Querencia Press, Bottlecap Press and Finishing Line Press.
Check out new poetry books for the week of 11/12 from Querencia Press, CavanKerry Press, Talonbooks, Finishing Line Press, Black Ocean, University of Calgary Press and University of Wisconsin Press.
Check out new poetry books for the week of 11/19 from Copper Canyon Press. Random House, Winter Editions, Books and Finishing Line Press.