Episode #176 Topsoil, In Repentance - Sherry Shenoda

Close Talking: A Poetry Podcast

Connor and Jack discuss the sonically and thematically dense poem "Topsoil, in Repentance" by Sherry Shenoda. Shenoda's book MUMMY EATERS was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2022. The conversation moves from an exploration of internal rhymes and alliteration, to the climate crisis, to the religious implications of the word "repentance," to soil strata, and to the relative weight of humanity. You can find out more about Sherry Shenoda, here: https://www.sherryshenoda.com/ Read the poem, here: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/march/topsoil-repentance-sherry-shenoda Topsoil, in Repentance By: Sherry Shenoda On my mind daily with the insistence of a metronome is that thin granular layer, rich humus, spare humility, black earth daily lifted and blown into the Gulf of Mexico. Thinnest of salvations with a margin of error wide as the pink, gelatinous body of the earthworm Which my spade barely misses, and every time my tines enter the ground, my wrist twists the damp loam, I breathe easier to see them wriggling, unburied fleeing the light, burrowing back down, aerating this earth we have packed down with our culpability this immense density of earth, only the topmost of which can support the unimaginable numbers of us, our great warm swarm Squinting up in immense sunlight I hear the silent swish and tick the back-and-forth rhythm, the last few seconds before midnight the enormity of the loan, which has been called in full The hazy buzzing of the furry bees, busy in the branches above my exposed neck, on any given day a stay for a little while longer, of execution Check out episodes of Close Talking on YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCCCSpjZcN1hIsG4aDrT3ouw Find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking Find us on Twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking Find us on Instagram: @closetalkingpoetry Find us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cardboardboxproductionsinc You can always send us an email with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at [e-mail].