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Poem-a-Day - "Bogeymen" by Amanda Johnston

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January 2, 2024 

Bogeymen
Amanda Johnston

I keep running from the bogeymen on my shelf
who did bad things and wrote great poems. I try not to feel
them become erect with the word great.

I close my eyes and thumb past the award seals
that silence women I love. What a lie to be alive!
To come so close to greatness, so close it knows
your name, and survive.

Copyright © 2024 by Amanda Johnston. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 2, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“It’s like what Lucille Clifton wrote: ‘they want me to remember / their memories / and i keep on remembering / mine.’”
—Amanda Johnston
Amanda Johnston is the author of Another Way to Say Enter (Argus House Press, 2017). Her work has been supported by fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, the Tasajillo Residency, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Watermill Center, and American Short Fiction. She is the founder and executive director of Torch Literary Arts and the 2024 Texas State Poet Laureate.


“Won Exit” by Elizabeth Metzger
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“a feeling has passed before a charted present” by Kimberly Alidio
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Thanks to Dante Micheaux, author of Circus (Indolent Books, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about Micheaux’s curatorial approach and find out more about our Guest Editors for the year.
“Poem-a-Day is brilliant because it makes space in the everyday racket for something as meaningful as a poem.” —Tracy K. Smith

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