{"id":65029,"date":"2022-09-04T05:32:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-04T11:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=65029"},"modified":"2022-09-03T14:56:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T20:56:29","slug":"three-selections-from-ogden-poet-laureate-angelika-brewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/three-selections-from-ogden-poet-laureate-angelika-brewer\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Selections from Ogden Poet Laureate Angelika Brewer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After a short hiatus, we are excited to return to our READ LOCAL First series with three selections from Ogden poet Angelika Brewer.<\/p>\n

Informally trained and largely self-taught, Brewer was taught to read, write and embrace her creativity by her teenage mother and her almost entirely blind grandmother. With encouragement from a high school English teacher, she discovered the world of Spoken Word Poetry. She has been a featured speaker at the Utah Conference for Teachers of English, Kiwanis Club, Ogden Pride Festival, PBS Utah, Standard Examiner online, Utah Arts Festival, Ogden Arts Festival, Literary Deathmatch, Concrete Rose, “Write About Now” cypher and many other events. She has self-published and self-bound a chapbook titled “I Don’t Want to Miss You,” and published in the compilation “First Moon Manual,” and has over 100 digital publishings. She has coordinated poetry slams, open mics, art shows and mixed arts events in Utah cities. She began writing about Ogden’s art scene for 15 Bytes in June, 2022.<\/p>\n

In July, Ogden City announced Brewer as their new poet laureate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Poet,<\/h4>\n

Despite your everdancing
\nwrist and steady breath,
\nright between the line
\nyou like and the (almost) rhym-
\ning one, smashed in a small space
\nor a large<\/h4>\n

gap,
\nyou will find bad days.<\/h4>\n

You will be c<\/strong> funeral ut<\/strong> organ
\nor an o<\/strong> ambulance ff<\/strong> siren.<\/h4>\n

You will be swallowed
\nby the gut of a heavy
\nblanket, the kind that
\nbegs you not to set
\n      an alarm.<\/h4>\n

You will be interrupted<\/h4>\n

by the scent of an ex-lover\u2019s
\nbed sheet or your late
\ngrandmother\u2019s perfume<\/h4>\n

and in that quiet place,
\nthe pen will bargain with you.<\/h4>\n

Take it\u2019s offer,
\neven if it isn’t reasonable.
\nOr don\u2019t.<\/h4>\n

But, remember that in the case
\nyou decline it\u2019s efforts to
\npersuade you back to
\nthe trusted lands,
\nit will always be there
\ncalling for your hands
\nand how loving a gesture:
\nto be a thing that only exists
\nfor you to be loud again.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Eulogies Read at Her Funeral Weren\u2019t Even About Her<\/strong><\/h4>\n

They spoke of rainbows
\nlike the tail-end of her long walk,
\n\u201cShe left them everywhere she went.\u201d
\nThey proclaimed.<\/h4>\n

\u201cShe loved us sunshine big\u2014
\nradiated that kind of bright care
\nfrom within so everyone around her
\ncould grow taller and sturdier.<\/h4>\n

She was selfless.\u201d
\nThey plead with the sky.
\n\u201cGive her back to me.
\nI\u2019ll tell her how she
\nmade rooms feel airless;<\/h4>\n

She was that beautiful to look at.
\nHer favorite color had to be
\nyellow, because she wrapped all of
\nour gifts in banana shades.\u201d<\/h4>\n

They wish they could hug her again-
\nTake one last breath of her warmth.
\nAnd that love or hers was profound,
\nbut her favorite color was purple
\nand she was an artist
\nand she was a terrible cook,
\nbut not really.
\nShe just had a hard time with measurements.
\nAnd directions.
\nAnd math.<\/h4>\n

\u201cShe was my favorite person.\u201d
\nThey cry.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know who I am without her\u201d<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Parasomnia<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Obliterate every thought of me.
\nPick me out of your teeth.
\nClear your sinuses of my smell.
\nBurn my photos.
\nIf you hear music that was once
\nsung in my voice,
\nturn it off.<\/h4>\n

Stop saying my name.
\nTurn yourself inside out
\nand scrape your stomach
\nof any remnant of it
\nyou may have swallowed
\nby mistake.
\nGet rid of anything
\nthat reminds
\nyou I exist(ed.)<\/h4>\n

And when you wake up tomorrow
\nyou will feel like you have lost,
\nbecause you saw me in a dream
\ndespite every righteous attempt
\nto wash your hands of me.
\nEven your best effort can not
\nconvince your subconscious
\nthat they are clean.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a short hiatus, we are excited to return to our READ LOCAL First series with three selections from Ogden poet Angelika Brewer. Informally trained and largely self-taught, Brewer was taught to read, write and embrace her creativity by her teenage mother and her almost entirely blind grandmother. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":65030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[4185],"class_list":["post-65029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first","tag-angelika-brewer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/angelika-brewer.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 07:17:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65029"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65032,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65029\/revisions\/65032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}