Freedom of Assembly: "Triple Moments of Light and Industry" by Brenda Hillman

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( March 23, 2019 [Triple Moments of Light and Industry]( [Brenda Hillman]( During our protest at the refineries, our friend R tells us there are bugs in the oil in the earth-colored vats at Valero & Shell, tiny slave bacteria changing sulfides, ammonia, hydrocarbons & phenol into levels of toxin the mixture can tolerate, & then we consider how early tired stars gave way to carbon molecules a short time after the start of time & now carbon makes its way in all life as the present tense makes its way in poetry, the sludge in the vats where the hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria break things down to unending necessities of which Dante writes of the middle of hell light where no light is— R says his friend who tends the bugs for the company feels tenderly toward his mini-sludge-eaters, they are his animals, he takes their temperature & stirs them & so on. We pause to think of it. Such small creatures. At the beginning of life the cells were anaerobic, ocean vents of fire, archaea, then they loved air. In the axis of time there are triple moments when you look back, forward or in. As a child you were asked to perform more than you could manage. Your need was not symmetrical. It is impossible to repay the laborers who work so hard. R describes his friend’s work as devotional. The bacteria do not experience hurt or the void but their service is uneven & that is why i protest. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( From Extra Hidden Life, among the Days (Wesleyan University Press, 2018). Copyright © 2018 by Brenda Hillman. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press. Watch Brenda Hillman reading today's Poem-a-Day "Triple Moments of Light and Industry," as part of [What Is It, Then, Between Us: Poetry & Democracy.]( [more-at-poets]( About This Poem “Some of my students and I engaged in a series of actions near the oil refineries in Contra Costa County and near shopping centers. We called our group Prophets not Profits and we would go out wearing masks for street theater to read poems written by ourselves and other poets in a sort of mini-occupation. We mostly chose pieces having to do with environmental subjects or political concerns; our hope was to bring poetry outdoors to places where poetry normally is not, such as oil refineries. On several occasions, some of the workers and passers-by stopped and asked what we were doing, and we told them; at one point, we were followed by a big white truck with darkened windows after asking if we could read poetry inside one of the petroleum offices. The ‘R’ in the poem had worked in the oil industry before joining the graduate program and told me about his friend who lovingly developed a caring relationship with the bacteria in the vats. I was moved by this and also ethically confused, as the poem tries to convey; I chose a form that mixes lineated and non-lineated poetry.” —Brenda Hillman [Brenda Hillman]( Brenda Hillman is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Extra Hidden Life, among the Days (Wesleyan University Press, 2018) and Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (Wesleyan University Press, 2013), which received the Griffin Prize for Poetry. She has served as a Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets since 2016. She is the Olivia Filippi Professor of Poetry at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California, and lives in San Francisco. [more-at-poets]( [Extra Hidden Life, among the Days]( Poetry by Hillman [Extra Hidden Life, among the Days]( (Wesleyan University Press, 2018) New Anthology: Curated by Brenda Hillman Read this anthology of poems related to Freedom of Assembly, curated by Brenda Hillman and featuring work by Allen Ginsberg, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Jayne Cortez, among others. [more-at-poets]( Learn More About Freedom of Assembly Read about the [National Constitution Center](, the first and only institution in America established by Congress to “disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis in order to increase the awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.” What Is It, Then, Between Us? Throughout March, poetry organizations in eleven cities that are a part of a national [Poetry Coalition]( will offer programs on the theme of [Poetry & Democracy](. On Saturdays this month, [Poem-a-Day]( will be inspired by the [First Amendment]( of the U.S. Constitution. [Share This Poem: #PoetryandDemocracy]( [Find More Poems: Browse our Collection of +9,000 Poems]( [Support Poem-a-Day: Make a Monthly Donation]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038