soil by Irène Mathieu
soil
Irène Mathieuthe way you say soil
sounds like soul, as inafter we walked through the woods
my feet were covered in soulwhen it rains
the soul turns to mudthe soul is made of decomposed
plant and animal matter;edaphology is the study of the soul’s
influence on living thingswhile pedology is the study of how
soul is formed, its particular granularity.you are rooted in a certain red patch
of soul that bled you and yourhundred cousins to life, a slow
warm river you call home.maybe there is soul under everything,
even when we strike rock first.the way you say soil you make
a poem out of every speck of dirt.
SELECTED BY SAM SAX
I heard the poet read this poem in 2017 (2018 maybe?) on a panel about the Poetry of Protest. What I remember most is the feeling that opened up inside me and the rest of the audience, something like the smell of rich dirt. How I forgot to breathe. Forgot I would be getting up to read and rather just sat there and was reshaped by the hand of the poem.
How intimacy and surprise turn at every line. The collision of the body with the earth with blood with history and with the beloved. I carry the poet’s voice with me as I read this poem still.
When I carry this poem with me I’m reminded of the power of the poet’s voice.
ABOUT SAM SAX
sam sax is a queer, jewish, writer and educator. They’re the author of Yr Dead, Longlisted for The National Book Award, and PIG, named one of the best books of 2023 by New York Magazine and Electric Lit. They’re also the author of Madness, winner of The National Poetry Series and Bury It, winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. They’re the two-time Bay Area Grand Slam Champion with poems published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, Granta and elsewhere. Sam is currently serving as an ITALIC Lecturer at Stanford University.
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in orogeny by Irène Mathieu, published by Trembling Pillow Press, 2017. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“Orogeny buries deep into rock and soil, silence and speech, into the pulse of what connects us as mothers, sisters, lovers, and ghosts—the quest for home and for a language that can account for both what might become and what has been lost. Searching ecologies, history, and embodied experience, Irène Mathieu’s lyric voice pieces together a world, which is at once our own and a map of possibility, a “fetal dream of ourselves, a sea of curled and floating ideas.” —Megan Kaminski, author of Deep City, judge of the 2016 Bob Kaufman Book Prize” (Source)
ABOUT IRèNE MATHIEU
Irène P. Mathieu is the author of four poetry collections: milk tongue (Deep Vellum Press, 2023), Grand Marronage (Switchback Books, 2019), orogeny (Trembling Pillow Press, 2017), and the galaxy of origins (dancing girl press, 2014). She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia and serves as Assistant Director of the Program in Health Humanities. Her writing and advocacy work have been featured in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Richmond Magazine,… (more)
Read more poems by Irène Mathieu • Find books by this poet on Amazon • Bookshop • Website • Or view my library
ENDNOTES
- This is Day 18 of Poems We Carry, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Read A Little Poetry—a living archive I’ve nurtured for two decades. For this milestone series, I invited writers I deeply admire to share poems that have meant something to them over time.
- Explore other works in pursuit of: soul • earth • self • Or browse the index
- If this work resonates with you, please consider supporting the archive. Thank you for reading.
