a poem by rio cortez

Black Annie Hall


in a black wool hat
& black suspenders
in line to see The Sorrow
& the Pity again

with khaki slacks
& an afternoon free
black Annie has trouble
hailing a cab
after seeing her analyst

on her roof,
black Annie
drinking white wine
after tennis
& dewy

Annie, living alone
calls for help to kill
a black widow spider
in her bathroom

black Annie is bored
so she takes adult courses
& can’t decide
between philosophy
or poetry

lucky today, black Annie
driving 80 on the West
Side Highway with the top
back, hair unmoved

black Annie’s white
boyfriend asks her
not to smoke
that marijuana cigarette
in bed & out-
of-body





"Black Annie Hall" first appeared in Prairie Schooner.





Rio Cortez lives in NYC. She is a Pushcart nominee and graduate of the MFA program at NYU. She has received fellowships from Poet's House, Cave Canem and Canto Mundo Foundations. Poems can be found at Prairie Schooner, Sugar House Review, Huizache Magazine, Chorus: A Mixtape,and elsewhere.

a poem by rio cortez

The Big Screen

breaks the dim
and hushes
us everybody
rapt & watching
the Tyson fight
my father
shadow boxing
on the sofa or

that Luther laserdisc
he is singing
along to
& my mother
looking at him
from someplace
& smiling
& knowing
something I don't
how they're down
there while I sleep
& I sleep harder
for it




Rio Cortez is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she received the Lucy Grealy Prize in poetry. She is currently an MFA candidate at New York University, a Cave Canem fellow, and a recipient of the 2012 Poets & Writers Amy Award. Her work has appeared in Clementine, Tuesday, Tidal Basin Review, Sugar House Review, Cratelit & most recently in Saul Williams’ Chorus. Born & raised in Salt Lake City, she now loves & lives in Queens, NY.

a poem by rio cortez

Darius 


1.

I don’t remember my name
Everybody calls me Hootie.

Before, we took their Rucker and it rang
across the steepled skyline of Holy City.

Today, I go nicknamed into the locker
room at Calaway Golf Club

and hear my voice pour warped
through the wall-mounted speaker box.

Ain’t it yours? Didn’t I
swallow it whole once

and now it renews from the mount
like a head dipped under water.

What other tool could usher me from this land
of pink-cheeked-other-Ruckers


2.

I buy my very first camel
suede jacket and in the beginning

I borrowed size 8 cowboy boots
and we would cover R.E.M. songs

in our integrated dorm room.
I know what I am

in this turquoise bolo tie
I don’t even have to name it.



Rio Cortez is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she received the Lucy Grealy Prize in Poetry. She is a Cave Canem fellow and MFA candidate at NYU. Her work has appeared in Clementine, Cratelit, Tidal Basin Review & upcoming in Sugar House Review.  Born & raised in Salt Lake City, she loves & lives in Queens, NY.

a poem by rio cortez

Work Song of the Ballad-Hunter


[Dobie Red] still managed to demonstrate an evocative field holler for the recording equipment
-Ted Gioia

You steal my clothes and try to say they yo's
-Mos Def



I want to take things
without asking
your body your name
then I want to take the sound
your body makes
and make that sound too

I wake up in a house
next to the field
I follow the field holler
I find the field hollerer
I cut the holler from his throat
I swallow it
I try to holler too


Rio Cortez is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she was the recipient of the Lucy Grealy Prize in Poetry. She is currently an MFA candidate at New York University. Her work has appeared in Dark Phrases, Through the Looking Glass & upcoming in Tidal Basin Review. Rio loves & lives in Queens, NY.

o my darlin

It's was really exciting to edit the latest edition of Clementine (an online journal of poetry and photography) with Becca. I love and admire all of the poets represented.

The issue features five previously unpublished poems by Tim Dlugos, whose collected poems, A Fast Life (edited by David Trinidad) is due from Nightboat Books in 2011. There are also three previously unpublished poems by Karl Tierney. A poet whose work I discovered in the excellent anthology Persistent Voices: An Anthology of Poets Lost to AIDS.

As always, we tried to represent many different voices. There are two great poems inspired by Curtis Mayfield by Rio Cortez. A Showgirls sestina by Jeffery Conway. Persona poems concerning Amy Winehouse by Kerri French. The subjects of the poems range from Vladmir Putin to video games.

All of the poems--by Jerome Murphy, Sarah Stickney, Charles Jensen, Matthew Hittinger, Jeffrey Allen, Michael Comstock, William Wright, Jenn Blair, Joe Eldridge, Nathan Vulgamott and Steve Westbrook--are smart and refreshing.

I am crazy about the Barbie photos of Russ Pedro and Brian Brown's evocative shots of rural Georgia.

Clementine is interested primarily in the idea of the persona, but we are rather loose with what we consider a "persona poem." Some in the issue are more literal about this than others. Becca and I are proud of what we put together and so happy to share the work of these artists.

the last days of summer reading

Yes it's the first of September and summer is coming to a close. I feel like I've read a lot of really great books this season. Here were some of my favorites:

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

A simple premise: a lazy Australian suburban barbecue is jolted when a man hits a child who isn't his own. Tsiolkas delves into different lives of those affected by the incident. His writing vividly captures contemporary suburbanites from a 71 year old man to a young gay teen. I found it completely engrossing and really admired his style.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I have been a fan of Lahiri's work since Interpreter of the Maladies and her new collection took my breath away. I love the way she builds a story so carefully and intricately.

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Divine! Rio at Le Chic Batik lended this to me and I absolutely adored it. An episodic, funny and poignant coming of age tale set in middle/upper class African American enclave of Long Island's Sag Harbor. So many great 1980s references (New Coke, scoring tix to Lisa Lisa and U.T.F.O.). The first book I've read in a while where the author seems to have had a joyous time writing.

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez

When a young boy's parents die in a flu pandemic, he is adopted by evangelical Christians in rural Indiana. Nunez not only gives a chilling and realistic portrayal of what would happen to America if an epidemic like this occurred, but focuses in on the emotional trauma of her characters. Deliberately paced and mostly told in flashback in the beginning, this book really surprised me with its powerful portrait of our fragile and divided country.

Some others I loved ...

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

The Surf Guru by Doug Dorst

Jack Kerouac's On the Road

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Colm Toibin's Brooklyn

Mary Karr's memoirs Cherry and The Liars' Club

You Lost Me There by Rosencrans Baldwin

A Sun for the Dying by Jean Claude-Izzo.

What were some of your favorite reads this summer? Please share!

structural damage

Structural Damage

Sunday and I sit at my parents’ window
watching the mormons walk home from church
As the ward empties itself onto our sun-sick street
I think I see our ceiling flaking onto the carpet
Bits of sheetrock snow peel apart and drift through the air,
my own winter holiday, always, what would the mormons think
The paint unstrips from the beams,
still behind are boughs of dry wood,
white wall battering the floor
What if this house pulls apart like a loose thread
what now as the wood beams break

-Rio Cortez


Rio Cortez is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she was the recipient of the Lucy Grealy Prize in Poetry. She has plans to attend the MFA program at New York University in the fall. Her work has been published in Dark Phrases, Through the Looking Glass & Catharsis Literary Magazine. Rio hates plane crashes and cuts in subway service, she loves and lives in Queens, NY.

more more more fashion week favorites

Marc by Marc - There were so many fun ones.

Rio at le chic batik offers up a review.

Nanette Lepore

Alexandre Herchcovitch's colorful, futebol-inspired collection.

tired things

What's wrong with Harper's Bazaar Naomi Campbell photo spread? Rio at le chic batik breaks it down.

Prof Susurro shows link love.

Le Chic Batik is also featured in Jezebel in an insightful post on race in the fashion industry.

mary, 1975

My friend Rio's mom's fake id from 1975. Love it.

costume drama

The best thing to happen this week was the Costume Institute Gala at the Met. Pretty much everyone was there and they all wore ridiculously great outfits. Rio of Le Chic Batik did the difficult task of narrowing down a Top 5.

My favorite was Anne Hathaway in Marc Jacobs. I loved her crazy hair, her earrings and her purple frock. I love her.

methuselah

Dear Readers, I am posting a poem a day for National Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets offers a poem-a-day e-mail for April. Check out their website here.

From time to time I will be posting poems that I think are interesting and ones from friends that I admire.

Today's poem is a lovely section from a series by my friend Rio.

from Methuselah Series
for Nate

1. Opiate Study

Your whole mass, a white heaping sack on the grass
cell-stitches keeping you from exploding poison
into the downstream of Chalk Creek.

Your whiteness is contagious, July and everything around
you begins to freeze. The reeds of Crab Grass harden like pins
beneath you, Blue Spruce Pines frost over in powder snow
there is no sun and no single breed of cloud in the sky.

This is the moment you die. A clearing in the woods:
your maker's un-womb. No chord to keep you close to your mother.


-Rio Cortez


Rio Cortez is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she was the recipient of the Lucy Grealy Prize in Poetry. Her work has been published in Dark Phrases & Through the Looking Glass. She is currently working on her chapbook, Ugly. Rio hates plane crashes and the MTA Doomsday Budget Plan; she loves and lives in Queens, NY.