Lita Kurth

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Lita Kurth

For the Children of the South: A Redaction poem
from the Prophet Jeremiah

a pen of iron and the point of a diamond it is their heart,

your children remember the green trees    the high hills

the field   treasures    the borders

I gave and I will serve

a fire forever

the arm and heart in the desert shall see good

the parched salt and hope the tree planted

by the heat    her leaf shall be careful in yielding

the heart desperately can know

I try to give riches, and not leave, days,

and be a fool

a glorious hope shall be written in the earth,

because of living, I shall be art

they say let it come now

as for me, I was right

a terror of evil

but let me be   let me be bring them the day    double

go children of the people, the kings come in,

and they go out

take and bring it in the gates 

carry your houses

neck stiff, they might not hear

do no work

enter the gates and remain forever

come from the cities

the mountains, and from the south,

bringing burnt praise

bear entering

kindle a fire

in the palaces

and it shall be

the word

Source & Method

Erasure from Jeremiah, Ch. 17-18. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/)

Lita Kurth has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net Awards. https://litakurth.weebly.com/. She  co-founded a literary reading series, Flash Fiction Forum.

p r e v i o u s   |   n e x t
Issue 26

Lita Kurth

Issue 20

Poem from Creative Writing Students

 

I am relearning this garden of my own making

I vow to be different.

As I move away from waiting rooms and call lights,

I enter a realm of quietness.

The walls are plastered with black trash bags.

I dunno why I’m here, man, I got shit to do.

Let me try this again

I should be worshipped and feared like a god.

Six people are snorting what looks like blow

They are almost like cats in a way

“No! My pie!” Sue cries from the kitchen.

These goddamn antics weary me,

Why do you really need a five-foot kazoo?

Let’s just make a drink with the juice and Malibu

I basically feel like a water balloon.

Tom smells like an apple tree

I have to sit on him (gently)

People jump up and down on their cars

throwing toilet paper

No traditional furniture in sight

The clocks stopped working about five days ago

“So tell me straight, are you sure you’ll be fine in America?”

Source & Method

Poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction of my writing students at De Anza College, Fall 2019. I wanted to include a line from each student’s work, so I chose ones that fit into a sort of narrative about my own teaching and life in the current moment.

Lita Kurth is a teacher and nominee for several Best of the Net and Pushcart Prizes in multiple genres, Lita Kurth also writes novels. As a current project, she sends lesson plans and feedback to a group of incarcerated poets.