Poem: Instructions for Stopping

I first learn this poem within the anthology “Bullets Into Bells: Poets & Residents Reply to Gun Violence.” This poem sat alongside Kate Ranta’s description of being shot by her ex-husband in entrance of her 4-year-old son. Dana Levin is the modern-day grasp of the em sprint (Dickinson is the opposite). Within the first part, the em sprint mimics respiratory out. Within the second part, inhaling. And within the last part, “Who provides love,/who terror — ” it acts extra like a query mark. I additionally love how this poem offers us directions by way of the crucial — which means, the poem is giving us hope to think about and assemble a nonviolent future. Chosen by Victoria Chang

Directions for Stopping

By Dana Levin

Say Cease.

Hold your lips pressed collectively
after you say the p:

(quickly they’ll attempt
to pry

your breath out—)

—

Whisper it
3 times in a row:

Cease Cease Cease

In a hospital mattress
like a curled-up fish, somebody’s

gulping at air—

How must you apply
your breath?

—

Record the entire folks
you desire to
to cease.

Who provides love,
who terror—

Write Cease.
Put a interval on the finish.

Determine if it’s a kiss
or a bullet.

Victoria Chang is a poet whose fifth e book of poems, “Obit” (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), was named a New York Occasions Notable E-book and a Time Should-Learn. Her e book of nonfiction, “Expensive Reminiscence: Letters on Writing, Silence and Grief,” was printed by Milkweed Editions in 2021. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches in Antioch College’s M.F.A. program. Dana Levin is a poet whose most up-to-date e book is “Now Do You Know The place You Are” (Copper Canyon Press, 2022), from which this poem is taken. Her honors embrace a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. She teaches inventive writing at Maryville College, the place she is distinguished author in residence.