Curated by CC Calloway and Bradley Marshall
Nicholas Goodly
Angel Number 22
-
you are running black blood
-
you lack the blunt weight of anyone
-
you run through the rug and ruin it
-
you know love by running your fingers through it
-
you forgot what black is
-
you love runny cracked eggs
-
you run over black road
-
you run with limbs you know nothing to do with
-
you rung the black from your gloves
-
you get nothing back
-
you are black from above
-
you are running out of loves to turn your back on
-
you make love like you don’t deserve it
-
you write like you don’t love it
-
you love your words and burn them
-
you light a book and hold it
-
you put your lips to old blood
-
you are making nothing from nothing
-
you burn the backs off your limbs
-
you must love it
-
you are turning back into yourself
-
you turn into black doves
Nicholas Goodly
First Poem
I had ever written was about green bug
because I painted one at school or the painting
came later to go with the poem or the poem
was about gold and was printed in rainbow letters
and the painting had a rainbow in it the picture
was a blue watering bucket a butterfly a sunset
made of orange and pink vertical stripes
and a purple rainbow and a rose or tulip
and the poem had a refrain it was a song
a song for class or I wrote it for my dance
teacher because she thought I was a poet
and I read it to the class or just to her she said
beautiful or thank you and the painting and poem
are in a frame together now and it matters
that where it all started was a good garden
__________________
Nicholas Goodly is a writer and artist living in Atlanta. They are the writing editor of Wussy Magazine, a Cave Canem fellow, author of the Georgia Writer’s Association guest blog Free Verse, and team member of the performing arts platform Fly on a Wall. Nicholas is a finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize, the runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and recipient of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship.
Nicholas received a teaching fellowship and MFA from Columbia University, is a Spring 2020 Hambidge Creative Residency Distinguished Fellow, was a finalist in Tupelo Press’ Four Quartets 2020: Poetry in the Pandemic, received second place prize for the 2018 New South Poetry Contest, was a semi-finalist in the 2018 Discovery/ Boston Review Contest, finalist in the 2017 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest, and finalist in the 2016 Academy of American Poets Prize. They are a Best of the Net 2020 Nominee, and Critic’s Choice for Best Poet 2018 in Creative Loafing Atlanta.
To see more work by Nicholas Goodly visit their website: https://www.nicholasgoodly.com/
Jonathan Adams is an artist from Bristol, VA/TN. He earned his BFA in drawing from East Tennessee State University and his MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from Rutgers University. His work has been exhibited in the lower eastside 21 Ludlow st, The Brooklyn Army Terminal under the contemporary artist Kara Walker, Crosstown Arts in Memphis, Chautauqua Visual Art galleries, Wiregrass Museum of Art and was a Part-time Lecturer in Drawing at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Adams’ currently lives with his family in VA/TN and loves noodles. View more from Jonathan Adams at www.thejonathanadams.com