J. P. WHITE

FALL/WINTER 2021 ISSUE #03 POET

J.P. WHITE has published essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews, and poetry in over 150 publications including The Nation, The New Republic, The Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, North American Review, The Georgia Review, Southern Review, and Poetry (Chicago). He is the author of five books of poems and a novel, Every Boat Turns South. Learn more at www.jpwhitebooks.net

NAKED

When I lay down in the Iao stream,

the cold held me under

and the clouds carried me to the extinct volcano.

Without opening my eyes,

I saw the many ruptures and returns of my life

and it was good enough, 

this ligature, this valley, this body, naked and floating.