Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
The Genius of Wives I Have Sat With
by Jameson Fitzpatrick
Before I decided to write this, I had often said that I would. I had often said that I would write, then not sat down to do it. I had often sat that I would write and still not written what I had said I would, The genius of wives of geniuses I have sat with. I have sat so much with so many. I have sat with wives who were neither wives nor geniuses, of geniuses who were wives. I have sat with real wives who were geniuses, of geniuses who were not real, wives, geniuses, or otherwise. I have sat with wives who were not wives but were geniuses, of geniuses who may or may not have been wives, geniuses, or real. I have sat with wives of geniuses, near wives of geniuses, with wives of near geniuses, of would be geniuses, of literary and evil and mad geniuses. I have been a wife who was not a real wife, of a genius who was a real asshole. I mean genius. He was how I came to sit with the many real geniuses and the many wives who were not real wives but were more often than not the real geniuses. In short, I have sat very often and very long with myself.
Copyright © 2018 by Jameson Fitzpatrick. This poem was originally published her chapbook, Mr. & (Indolent Books, 2018).
About the Author
Jameson Fitzpatrick is the author of the poetry collection Pricks in the Tapestry (Birds, LLC, 2020) and the chapbooks Mr. & (Indolent Books, 2018) and Morrisroe: Erasures (89plus/LUMA Publications, 2014). She is a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in Creative Writing and teaches first-year writing at New York University.
Queer Poem a Day: Lineage Edition
- 1: Richie Hoffman
- 2: Derrick Austin
- 3: Maggie Millner
- 4: Rachel Mennies
- 5: Armen Davoudian
- 6: Tara Skurtu
- 7: K. Iver
- 8: Chen Chen
- 9: Alicia Mountain
- 10: Jameson Fitzpatrick
- 11: Randall Mann
- 12: Megan Fernandes
- 13: Amanda Gunn
- 14: Composer Robert Savage and John Ashbery
Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.
