Every once in a lucky while, I read a piece of writing that changes me, and by change I don’t mean that I become a completely new person. What I mean is I understand life in a different way: maybe I gain a new insight, or I step into someone’s perspective, or maybe I learn something about humanity that makes me feel more connected to the whole of this world, not just my little part of it.

“Stand Off” by Nancy Miller Gomez is a piece of writing that changed me. I’ve studied and taught this poem—and while I won’t get into the architecture here or why the artistic choices she made work so well—I can tell you right now that I felt those choices as I read the piece, and if a writer can make a person feel deeply, they have accomplished a big thing.

Here is Nancy’s poem:

This poem is from Nancy’s chapbook, Punishment, published by Rattle and featured on Rattle. You can learn more about Nancy Miller Gomez here. She has a new collection, Inconsolable Objects, forthcoming from YesYes Books.

Thank you so much, Nancy, for having written this astounding poem and for allowing me to share it.

It’s the end of National Poetry Month. Thank you to all my blog subscribers and readers who went along with me on this poetry journey during April. And thank you to all the poets who allowed me to share their work. (You can find links to all of the poems on the sidebar of my blog.)

And now we’ll return now to our regularly scheduled program.

(But don’t forget to read a poem now and again. Feel free to check out my latest poetry collection, Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough.)

Photo credit: Jonathan Cooper from Unsplash.com