Patience

By Courtney Stanton

Have you been alive for the past few years? You may remember the g l o b a l  p a n d e m i c and also want to think about it in the form of free verse poetry written by a very tired EMT in the Pacific Northwest. 

 

These poems were composed to capture life as it turned a particular series of corners. None of them are formally structured in any particular way because I don't have an MFA and lack discipline, although I make up for it at the gym. Some of them were written in twenty minutes and have been edited little; for others, it seemed as if I would never be done writing. 

 

All of them I present here to you, grateful for your attention.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Courtney Stanton
• Release date: Dec 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223319207

Courtney Stanton

Courtney Stanton is an extravagantly queer trans writer, actor, and furniture salesman in Portland, Oregon. His writing has previously appeared in Buzzfeed, Jezebel, and Wired, among other publications. His social media posts have been cited in the occasional academic paper for inscrutable reasons.  His poetry chapbooks, "Patience" and "Schatzi", can be found locally at Bishop & Wilde. Visit him on Instagram @mrcourtneystanton for announcements, public reading locations, and memes.

Book preview

untitled

temporary had prior meaning

this, this too, shall

pass my tofu mind

absorbing gestalt

once dragged on a one-two-three to a bed

the electricity of healing would flow

a signature then a problem

forgotten

the day the hospital withheld

gloves from some nurses I spied us

all as children left outside overlong

inventing new games until called for supper

Balsam (Impatiens)

Impatience

First Call

I hadn’t seen vomit be futile before, youthful

man on wool carpet alongside his final couch

spray and splay of last hours across

the cool striating body.

Here I seized the deep nature of people:

You must tell truths they already knew.

She might hover still in that