Bloodstone Cowboy

Kara Jackson

• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781642591217
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

Kara Jackson's Bloodstone Cowboy is a reclamation of her lineage, an affirmation of self, and a declaration of her right to contain multitudes. These poems from the 2019 National Youth Poet Laureate complicate the definition of womanhood, troubling what it means to live in a body and love it. A complex and resilient love permeates Jackson's writing, from anthems praising her full belly to poems grappling with "sort-of" love for her midwestern hometown. 

Drawing on the rich traditions of Lucille Clifton and Sharon Olds, this expansive collection proudly claims the inheritance of her family's southern roots, while carving out space for Jackson to exist fully without shame. As she writes, "when the day calls I will answer to my name / claim it"

i woke up and the day caught me

in its mouth like a strand of yarn

i am useful

the motivation for a scarf, maybe

some stitch started to be finished

i will make up someone’s

heat i will be a fire

so intricate it can be worn

i woke up and the day called on me

specifically, threw my name through the sky

the way children are thought up

trials pulled through the stars

i woke up and like anyone who wakes

and asks why i checked my feet,

rubbed the bones for their reality

i keep waking though i’ve asked for rest

cornered the moon in the alley,

pawned the dark to assume its place

and still i return to that burning chin

honor that persistent candle

because who will wake up if not me?

who will the day catch then

if i am not the center of its tongue?

what of the women who keep waking?

what of my mother, who has asked for rest, too?

and her mother, tucked into an endless slumber

i woke up and the day thanked me

for coming so far. i know rest is a long

walk from the sun, i know we’ve been up

for so long, that sleep doesn’t settle

for my blood. me, daughter of the rooster’s song

but when the day calls i will answer to my name

claim it like a fire rushing toward living things

i will rise because there is someone praying

for me to remain still

acknowledgments

Giant thanks to Frontier Poetry for first publishing “love poem with a knife” and Third Coast Magazine for publishing “lost & found”.

I want to thank my bloodline. Thank you to my family. Thank you to the women who raised me. To Ms.Little, my second mother. Thank you to my big brother Forrest.

To Sarah Lotus for doing the amazing cover art!

Thank you Peter Kahn for making me write poetry.

To the ones watching out for me: Dominique, Eve, José, Nate, Kevin, Ana, Demetrius, Casera, Nick, Alyssa, Rachel, Caleb, Aisling, E’mon, Jasmine, Kamaria, Matt, Britteney, Raych, Aricka, Kush, Fati, Toaster, Tasha, Kaina, Sen, Adam, Dr.Camea, Natalie, Natasha, Billie, Steffen, and the Bey Family.

To the ones who believed in these poems even when I didn’t: Eve, Fati, Danez, Nate, Hanif, Kevin, Franny, José, and E’mon.

To my heroes: Patricia Smith, Krista Franklin, Mahogany Browne, Noname, avery r. young, Sharon Olds, Gwendolyn Brooks, Eve Ewing, Sufjan Stevens, Solange Knowles, Joan Baez, Moses Sumney, Joanna Newsom, Rico Nasty, Fiona Apple, Mitski, and Megan Thee Stallion.

Thank you to my dearest friends. To the most wonderful Maya who is my angel, To Kyndall who is my cowboy in crime and my midwestern hero, to Ari my husband, the Lotus brothers who have my heart on a string, Georgia who is the sun, Noah who always makes art more exciting for me. Thank you Bomb Squad. Thank you Jalen, Sammy, Leah, Morgan, Lily, Emily, Selah, Camille, Lena, Ethel, Leah K. , Annilee, Amanda, Sara, and many, many more.

Thank you Pat Frazier, my best friend, my sibling. Thank you for being my fiercest believer and my fiercest challenger; for egging these poems on and for nudging me forward when I wanted to stand still. Thank you for standing by my side even when I stink.

The biggest thank you to Jamila Woods, for helping these poems learn to walk. I am so grateful for you for guiding me over these last few years. BLOODSTONE COWBOY is a consequence of your patience, your edits, and your care. I could not ask for a better mentor and a better role model. Cheers to you always.

about the ...

Table of contents

• Bloodstone Cowboy
• my virginity signed a bad contract
• happier elsewhere
• on my birth name
• first
• anthem for my belly after eating too much
• mean streak
• moonshine speaks
• in defense of chitlins
• blood is not a woman’s currency
• the world is about to end and my grandparents are in love
• love poem with a knife
• landays from the woman who pulled her pepper spray out on the CTA:
• on beating your ass
• tribute for when i’m quiet
• things the toilet borrowed
• methods for catching the sun
• Maya grows on a tree every year when the season is right
• lost & found
• poem for the midwest
• a case for long johns
• white girl victory & other american myths
• ode to pretty when i was ugly before
• i woke up and the day caught me