Tell Me by Anthony Cody

Artist Statement

I have been drafting variations of this poem for six years, when in a stairwell the poet javier a. lopez asked me about dogs and I replied, I don’t believe in animals. And the longer I sat with that phrase, the more I thought about how I don’t actually believe myself; but rather I, too, am perceived as animal. On the page, stage, or simply standing around waiting for a coffee to be ready. I have been doing everything to try and avoid this reality of never exactly fitting in. There is an exhaustion to keep up the appearance for the sake of decorum. But I don’t believe in decorum. I’m a little hostile, kind of feral, and, frankly, gain too much joy from yt discomfort. The eLit medium lets me tear off the doors to linear thought, lets me say rupture that comfort, and instead, electronically, summon animal.

Bio

Anthony Cody is the author of two collections of poetry. His most recent collection is The Rendering (Omnidawn, 2023). Anthony’s debut collection, Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, 2020), was winner of the 2018 Omnidawn Open Book Prize, selected by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. For his work, he has been awarded a 2022 Whiting Award, a 2021 American Book Award, a 2020 Southwest Book Award, as well as being named a finalist for a 2020 National Book Award, a 2021 PEN America / Jean Stein Award, a 2021 L.A. Times Book Award, a 2021 California Book Award. In 2020, he was honored as a 2020 Poets & Writers debut poet. 
He is a CantoMundo fellow from Fresno, California with lineage in the Bracero Program and Dust Bowl. His poetry has appeared in The Academy of American Poets: Poem-A-Day Series, Gulf Coast, Ninth Letter, among others. Anthony co-edited How Do I Begin?: A Hmong American Literary Anthology (Heyday, 2011), as well as co-edited and co-translated Juan Felipe Herrera’s Akrílica (Noemi Press, 2022). He is co-publisher of Noemi Press, a poetry editor for Omnidawn, collaborates with Juan Felipe Herrera and the Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio, and is faculty in poetry at Randolph College’s Low Residency MFA Program.

This poem is part of The Los Angeles Review‘s electronic literature folio presented by Letras Latinas and The Poetry Foundation. Please read the introduction letter HERE for more information.

26 May 2023