#cdaleyoung

I have a new poem in POETRY magazine with audio file if you want to hear me read it.

Signed. Prometeo due out Spring 2021. #cdaleyoung #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #fourwaybooks #contractreveal https://www.instagram.com/p/BpR_1pgFNKB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=10t3t3lxygb2d

An itch, and then that prickly heat, the pointed tips at the wings’ terminus tenting the skin between my shoulder blades. I was so young then—pain, that ripping sensation and that sound as those points compromised the muscle, as they tore through my skin. The wings erupted. My wings spewed from my back. I expected blood to splatter, but in the mirror the tiled floor behind me remained clean. And as my wings extended, I saw that the greyish feathers were clean. No one can recreate the panic of the first time. Some would say I am crazy, that this was just a dream. But it was no dream. Over a lifetime, I have become a Master of concealment. I have learned to tuck my wings, learned to wear two shirts until the wings blacken, wither, and fall off. I don’t even know why I am telling you this. I shouldn’t be telling you this. But there are times like this one where, standing naked, I try to deploy them, anxious to show the very things that used to terrify me. I open my shoulders. I lean forward. I wait. Go ahead. Put your arms around me. Press your warm fingers into my back. There. Right there. "In flagrante delicto" from The Halo (c) 2016 by C. Dale Young. Appears with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.

“Writing means everything to me. I could give up many things in my life, but I cannot imagine not writing. With that said, writing is a privilege. One writes when one can. I don’t believe in overcoming adversity as a writer, but I am biased, terribly biased. I watch people work to overcome cancer every day. That is adversity. Writers, myself included, love to wallow in the misery of this slight or that slight. But that isn’t really writing any way. That is the business of writing. When you are deep in the process of drafting, when time stops and you are outside of time absorbed in getting the words down, in getting the words right, that is writing. And that is an incredible thing. The rest of it is all business. I have overcome many adversities in my life, but none related to writing. Maybe I am the lesser for that.” Read the full interview by Martin Ott here. C. Dale Young’s most recent poetry collection, Torn, is available from Four Way Books.  His next poetry collection, The Halo, is forthcoming from Four Way Books in 2016.

Torn is available from Four Way Books. C. Dale Young's poetry collection The Halo is forthcoming from Four Way Books in early 2016.