Скачать или смотреть Nikki Allen “abandoning the fear of being left behind” and “in love” [poems, 2016]

Poet Nikki Allen, whose work appears in the chapbooks ligaments of light/tigering the shoulders, Gutter of Eden, and Quite Like Yes, has lit up stages across the country for over fifteen years, originally working with slam poetry structures before emerging with a voice that is uniquely hers. In 2014, Allen left her life in Pittsburgh, first with a move to Egypt and then to Ohio, where she lives today. Trips back to Pittsburgh still turn up feelings of nostalgia and loss.

“I left in 2014 and [Pittsburgh is] so different now. I miss how it was,” she says. “It’s like missing something that doesn’t exist anymore. All of my friends are here, and I cut my teeth with writing here, so I always want to come back—but it isn’t what it was. It makes me sad.”

For The Glassblock's Close-Up series, Allen shares readings of two poems, “abandoning the fear of being left behind” and “in love.”

[Originally published by The Glassblock in 2016.]