Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Featured Poet: Daniela Olszewska


"Daniela Olszewska was born Wroclaw, Poland and raised
in the area known as Chicagoland. Her poems have
appeared in recent issues of La Petite Zine, Cranky,
and Conduit. Daniela's chapbooks are called The
Partial Autobiography of Jane Doe (dancing girl press,
2008) and Resort to Humming (Scantily Clad Press,
forthcoming). She holds a BA in Poetry from Columbia
College Chicago and plans to start working towards her
MFA degree at the University of Alabama this fall."

Daniela is a a first for a number of reasons on this site:
-She's one of the first people to join the facebook group dedicated to it, and has been a friend in spreading the word and info on it to other friends.
-Shes's the first poet to openly acknowledge the phantom presence of editorial assistant Becky in her letter. Becky has read some of the poems for now, and as more submit, she'll read more and more.
-She is the first Wroclaw Warrior bringing Polish Power to O Sweet Flowery Roses. Ok, so that's not much of a first. But I guess I only had two firsts for her and realized that seemed underwhelming.
Regardless, she is a very talented poet and I am happy to present some of her poems.

Hotel

Obelisk mash-ups,


grace-plated


and mercy-lipped.


Shiver and lunge


and tripled down


under the weight


of uncouth dipped


special just for you.


Discombobulating


in hyper peach/pink.


Gobo projections.


Love me


on a fun day.


Ribbon rack,


nurture nook –


crapshoot mafias.


Braying purposely


pariah-like.


January


I.

They built citadels underneath


my hairline to be guarded


by bees and panic attacks.


II.


Sheet after sheet of dirty blue


tinfoil. Of decametric song.


Dot. Dot. Dashing through the show.


III.


This corner of intensely hued bazaar.


Filled with creatures of a polydactyl


and peacock-plumed nature.


IV.


Marked with the three signs


of terrible memory.


Winter exponentialized.




Ectopic


The bones can.
Make blastocyst.


Full of epicene.
And hemlockery.


Tented under the fleshy.
Part of my never naked.


Enough back. I grew.
a 90-degree angled.


Foreigner with placards.
And enough kickings.


To call undue mention.