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The Friday Poem on 22/04/22

We chose Jane Burn’s poem ‘Revelations 01/01/2022’ to be our Friday Poem this week because how could we not? Her voice is immediately recognisable — distinctive, contemporary, surprising. The poem riffs on the demands and pressures placed on us by modern living, building in force and power, layer upon layer, until the torrent of exhortations brings us eventually to just one word. It’s compelling from start to finish.

Revelations  01/01/2022

try harder  lose weight  skim the weight from your clumsy bones 
make a bit more of an effort  get fit  this is a new start  forget
all the empty promises  grow your hair  vow yourself amazing 

stop sleeping with people you only just met  stop making a danger
of your skin  stop taking risks  take more risks  do not think that
everything is broken  stop letting yourself slip through the cracks

become famous for  be anonymous  earn money  manage the money
you earn  eat normally  be normal  fuck normal  learn to love Sundays 
find love  you are not defined by love  tell people that mock your accent

how it makes you feel  tell yourself that you are equal  try to recognise
when you are doing something wrong  tell your value  moisturise
your feet  give up smoking  give up gin  discover what might be

bad for you  drink herbal tea  do fifty sit-ups per day  do twenty
sit-ups per  do ten  do five  aim for 10,000 steps a day  the Pennine
Way is about 250 miles  in six months you could walk from  learn

to wild camp  learn to drive by the age of 20  30  40  make sure
to pack a nutritious lunch  bake your adoration into cakes  cut down
on sugar  eat yourself well  try harder  go to the theatre  wear

comfortable shoes  walk on the beach  walk to the shops  take the
stairs  scarves are both functional and beautiful  you are beautiful 
and functional  work hard  work harder  read  read better  write 

write better  learn how to crochet  ask for help  ask for the right help 
set the clock five minutes fast  learn to play the ukulele  de-clutter 
write poems  write poems  smiles are the summer of the face  dispose

of every photograph that makes you feel upset  master your fear of
swallowing orange pith  imagine yourself as other  as hare  as horse 
as deer  as whale  as bird  sing as though your child is listening  

grow your own tomatoes  clear an hour each day for reading  notice
all the little things  learn the names of wildflowers  plant a tree  plant
another tree  find out who you are  find the story of your grandmother’s

past  go back to school  repeat the word academia until it feels
comfortable in your mouth  endure the discipline of sonnets  always
carry a notebook  jot a few lines down every day  at least one word

Jane Burn is a Pushcart / Forward Prize nominated, multi award winning, working class, bi, neurodivergent poet and artist. Her poems are widely published and anthologised. She is in the second year of an MA in Writing Poetry at Newcastle University and her latest collection, Be Feared, is published by Nine Arches Press. She has also recently been awarded an Arts Council grant to pursue her neurodivergent hybrid writing methodology.

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