United States, (b. 1973)
FIRE REPLIES
- I do more
- than cast light.
- I melt iron-
- draw blood
- from this red
- mountain.
- I am the hell
- that makes rust
- rise stones float
- so all that is impure
- can be skimmed
- away. I create
- the molten body
- that fattening pig
- iron suckling
- at the trough
- named “sow.”
- Because of me
- every railroad
- spike is a man’s
- knuckle every
- bridge is a man
- stretched too far.
- Hear the clanging
- of hammer on anvil
- chanting:
- good
- it is
- good
- it is good.
About the Poet:
Tina Mozelle Braziel, United States, (b. 1973), poet, essayist and educator. Her poetry and essays have been published in a variety of journals including Red Mountain Review, Santa Clara Review, StorySouth, PMS and others. She has two books of poetry published, author of Known by Salt (2019) and Rooted by Thirst (2016)
Braziel is the Director of Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, an intensive summer program for high school students interested in creative writing as a career or for personal enrichment.
In 2017, Braziel served as an artist-in-residence at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, and in 2013 she was awarded a scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She and her husband, novelist James Braziel, live and write in a glass cabin that they are building on Hydrangea Ridge in Remlap, Alabama.
Braziel has been published under these variations of her name: Tina Braziel, Tina Mozelle Braziel, T. Mozelle Harris and T. Harris. [DES-01/22]
Additional information:
- Tina Mozelle Braziel – https://tinamozellebraziel.com/