June 16, 2024
Kelli Russell Agodon
Kelli Russell Agodon is a bi/queer poet and editor from the Pacific Northwest. Her latest book, Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press), was a Finalist in the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize in Poetry. She cofounded Two Sylvias Press and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University's low-res MFA program. She also co-hosts the poetry series "Poems You Need" with Melissa Studdard.
And when I sonnet my body
onto your page and you try to leave
me, I emdash you—see
the beauty in that fine thin line
—a bridge grows between us.
When I say things like “I emdash you,” it’s a way to breathe life into the tools of our craft, to animate the punctuation and structure that we usually see as background elements. Who wouldn’t want to be emdashed, after all?