Animal / Anima by Martha Collins

February 4, 2015   Animal / Anima   Martha Collins

all of us     all but us     only                             (but not us) the mammals     or only                                       us: animal in us     or only                                          the male of us:     brute                                       no animals     in the Bible                                     only beasts     as  of the field                                      not us:     it says    breathed                                  into     in our image     of the dust                                          anima breath     to anima                                          soul     but all animals                                       breathe the     same     one                                      long song     the same     air            Copyright © 2015 by Martha Collins. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘Animal / Anima’ is one of a number of similar poems that appear throughout my book Admit One: An American Scrapbook, to be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2016. Beginning with the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and highlighting other dates, events, and places (including the Bronx Zoo) that extend into and beyond the 1920s, the book addresses racism, eugenics, immigration, and other related issues through a collage of documentary materials and lyrical explorations.” —Martha Collins   Martha Collins is the author of Day Unto Day (Milkweed Editions, 2014).  She is editor-at-large for Fieldmagazine and an editor for the Oberlin College Press. Collins lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most Recent Book by Collins   Day Unto Day (Milkweed, 2014) "Wilderness" by Carl Sandburg "The Future is an Animal" by Tina Chang "With Passing Wonder I Notice the Tracks of an Animal" by David Biespiel Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006,Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.