A Very Jerry Williams Valentine's Day

We've got a special Valentine-y guest post today from Jerry Williams, who edited (and wrote the introduction for!) IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME: THE POETRY OF BREAKUP. If you're looking for a fun activity for this evening that won't involve underwhelming prix-fixe menus and "he went to Jared," stop by KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St., NYC) at 7 p.m. to hear Jerry (with Donna Masini, David Lehman, and Kenneth Hart) wax poetic. Hope to see you there!

Happy Valentines Day, everyone. I was thinking about calling the internet to find out where the apostrophe goes in Valentines, but I’m going to restrain myself. That’s not to say the apostrophe isn’t an incredible piece of punctuation, especially on V-Day, although it does imply possession—e.g. Tim’s television, Shelby’s apartment, Jerry’s old typewriter. No one should own anyone in a relationship. Yes, this seems like a pretty obvious directive, but who among us has not witnessed instances of what I call Interpersonal Colonization: one person lording it over another for reasons known only to the couple? I’ve been waiting years to use this terminology, but I could never find the context—until now, as they say in movie trailers and infomercials. That said, tonight you should attend an anti-V-Day poetry reading triggered by my anthology, It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Breakup, featuring David Lehman, Donna Masini, Kenneth Hart, and yours truly. I can’t believe I just wrote that. Yours truly. Who says that? Anyway, the reading is at KGB Bar at 85 E. 4th Street at 7 p.m. Since you’ll probably hear a lot of very negative material about romantic love, I thought I would offer up an Anti-Anti Saint Valentine’s Day (I looked it up) poem that I wrote a couple years ago. Up to that point, rest assured, I was just like you, suffering through one relationship debacle after another—boom! boom! boom! like a relationship blitzkrieg. So here’s that poem. For my wife, Shelby. On Valentine’s Day.

Bed, Bath, and Beyond

Days, maybe weeks, before the first

whole night together,

I ventured down Second Avenue

to buy a new pillowcase for the optional

third pillow, your pillow.

In the past, there had been

a maroon pillowcase

and a navy blue pillowcase

and a bottle-green pillowcase.

One refused to accept bribes;

one pretended to drink holy water;

one took a full-time job crying.

According to the packaging,

your pillowcase is oyster, obliterates

the selfishness of regret,

and looks like a fresh sheet of paper

against your brown skin,

your brown skin that seems

so crucial and complementary

against my white skin

in the warm, reflective dark.

Now that my body feels like a pulpit,

and I am my body's messenger,

I will keep this life.

Jerry Williams teaches creative writing at Marymount Manhattan College. In 2003, Carnegie Mellon University Press published his collection of poems, Casino of the Sun, and a new collection, Admission. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in American Poetry Review, Tin House, Pleiades, and many other journals. He lives in New York City.

Praise for It's Not You, It's Me


“A fine new anthology…featuring terrific poets…Williams is as good a prose writer as he is a poet. Get hold of this guy’s stuff and read it.” -- Entertainment Weekly

“Jerry Williams, has had some experience with romantic disappointment, as he details in his slightly painful introduction…This collection is split into three sections — ‘One Foot Out the Door,’ ‘In the Middle of the Storm’ and ‘The Aftermath’ — and it gathers many of the poems that have helped Williams (a poet himself, with two books to his name) through his rooms of anguish over the years. Happily, they’re pretty great.” – PaperCuts

“In It's Not You, It's Me: The Poetry of Breakup today's big contemporary poets make breaking up and even divorce sound painfully beautiful. You'll want to read with a box of tissues, a pint of chocolate ice cream and sappy love songs playing in the background.” – Lemondrop

IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME Poetry Anthology Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly

Just as National Poetry Month wraps ups this week, Entertainment Weekly pays tribute to It's Not You, It's Me: "Jerry Williams is the editor of a fine new anthology, It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Break-Up. It’s a collection featuring terrific poets such as Mark Halliday, Tony Hoagland, and Ai (a fine poet who died just last month). It’s Not You, It’s Me is divided into three themed sections “One Foot Out The Door,” “In The Middle Of The Storm,” and “The Aftermath.” This may be an anthology for anyone who’s been broken-hearted, but it’s not an anthology for anyone who’s faint-hearted: Treacly, romantic, winsome little poems are entirely absent Williams’ from conception of the messiness of breaking up with someone.

In his superb introduction, Williams says bluntly, “I have endured four major break-ups in my life. Each one nearly killed me.” You think he’s kidding… and then he goes on to describe each one. Williams is as good a prose writer as he is a poet. Get hold of this guy’s stuff and read it."

It's Break-Up Night for the Poets of IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME on February 25 at KGB Bar in NYC

Join Jerry Williams and a stellar cast of heartbroken poets for evening of poetry at KGB Bar in Manhattan, Thursday, February 25, at 7pm.

It's Not You, It's Me editor Jerry Williams will be joined by Peter Covino, Martha Rhodes, and Linda Gregg for poetry readings, storytelling, and non-stop entertainment!

Jerry Williams teaches creative writing at Marymount Manhattan College, and has two collections of poetry Casino of the Sun (2003, Carnegie Mellon University Press) and Admission (2010, Carnegie Mellon University Press). His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in American Poetry Review, Tin House, Pleiades among others. He currently lives in New York City.

Linda Gregg is the author of seven poetry collections: Too Bright to See; Alma; The Sacraments of Desire; Chosen by the Lion; Things and Flesh; In the Middle Distance; and All of it Singing: New and Collected Poems. In 2006 she received the PEN/Voelcker Award in Poetry for her career achievement. She live in New York City.

Peter Covino is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island. Winner of the 2007 PEN America/Osterweil Award for Emerging Poets, he is the author of Cut Off the Ears of Winter as well as the chapbook Straight Boyfriend. Recent poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, and others. He is the founding editor of Barrow Street.

Martha Rhodes is the author of three collections of poetry: At the Gate, Perfect Disappearance, and Mother Quiet. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, and in the M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College. She is also the founding editor and director of Four Way Books.