Shannan Mann writes poetry, essays, and is currently working on a novel. Her novel is “set across India, Canada, the U.S. and New Zealand. Also, across time. Also, one of the chapters is narrated by a frying pan.” She is a mom to a cricket-loving three year old, and she runs OnlyPoems.net, a beautiful on-line lit mag, with her partner.

shannan mann
ABECEDARIAN FOR K

a
          somewhere between the american and british version
                    almost always the and is hummingbird
          you never truly consider anything
                    as being other from anything else

b 
          you love   babies   books   birds
                    don’t care much for but and because
          you place a blindfold over my eyes     chant kiss   and vanish
                    I’m left     biting the lower lip of breeze

c 
          came a mountain        crowned in lightning
                        called me calf
          come back to bed 	   everywhere you turn	
                    you will find 	   our children

d 
          an abandoned hand
                    darling   dearest   darkburst
          I doubt grace 	 demand passion
                    you with a hand on the doorknob
          open for me

e 
          everything 	          even the rain

f 
          falaq 		          sky 
          furqat 	                  separation 
          you 		          feather 
          your  you	          flame 

g 
          when it comes     to god
                                         you spew the word
          like your spit         on my face       mid-orgasm

h 
	hitchhiker
	how many hours
	will we keep 
                    our thumbs in the air
	forget 	home
	say 	hello 	to here
	
i 
          rare in your poems
          everywhere in your speech

j 
          jupiter		where I built 
                                our first house

k 
          begins your name
          before you step 
          into the silhouette 
          of mine

l 
          you love la lala la lala la in any song
                    wish you were born a musician 
          who could lull hurricanes

m 
          more please
		          always more

n 
          my name	overtaken by n’s
          kneels behind your teeth 
                    white		and a small gap 
                                        to let the light in

o 
          over this vase of snow
          over Ana’s rainbow 
          over my love for you?
          over my dead body 

p 
          you inherited 	 poetry
          from your parents’ piss

q  
          quiet night 
                    sleep with me 
          until sleep arrives 

r 
          rainfall 	   all morning
                       I’ll reach into sun 
          and bloom  you sunflowers 

s 
          you had an ex      whose name you erased 
          called her s       a secret from your mother
          and then found	
	               well       what’s the opposite of ex
          hex 		         next     		      vortex

t 
          taboo	 tryst	trust
                    we 	 trainwrecked
          our way    through this trinity
	  and now            we’re together

u 
          if we reach the end
          please make a u-turn

v 
          we shape words		          into vessels
          to melt in the volcano of culture and colour
          which is to say you often pronounce 
          v as a w and w as a v
          because our mother tongue 
          does not think in double you’s
          but you love evolve 	valley	
          valve 	vulva	 uvula	   so much 
          I echo them back as love

w
          where are you now
          who sleeps beneath your spell tonight

x 
          sexier than an eagle with a rose in its beak

y 
          why	daybreak 
          why 	hope
          why 	plucking stars
          why 	eyes in a mirror
          why 	visa
          why	millions of years
          why 	the slow blue flow of clouds against sun
                        to reveal a body in the wings of the wind
          why 	all night I moan an opera of why’s for you
 
z 
          please whisper 
                    something like zephyr
          so I can finish this poem 
                    which won’t ever finish 
          unless you stop singing

                                        but please don’t

Author Q & A

december: Tell us a bit about this poem: where did it come from? What does it mean to you?

Shannan: This poem was written over the course of several months. I was playing around with the abecedarian but felt it limiting in its constriction of beginning each line with the consecutive letter. The poem began from attempting to deconstruct the form. But in order to do any kind of deconstruction, you need a good reason. And what better reason than love? I was away from Karan (Kapoor), my partner, then. Away like…many oceans away. The long-distance was wearing us down in more than ways than one even though there was (and, I’m happy to tell you, is) so much love. Due to the time difference and our individual responsibilities, we were hardly able to speak to each other for more than a minute or two. So, I began writing to him, for him — and also for the form, beyond the form. Love is contained in many forms that makes sense to the world. Karan’s and my love often didn’t make sense to people. This was my way of understanding something weird and surreal and beautiful and impossible. Categorizing how and who and why I love.

december: What’s a standout moment you remember from the process of working on it? A stroke of inspiration, a generative brainstorm, a revision challenge, an a-ha moment, a time you shared it with a reader who loved it? Give us a window into the way this piece came to life.

Shannan: The standout moment was sharing it with Karan. He is also a poet and a very accomplished one at that. He loved it of course, wept also hearing me read it to him. But after the initial emotional and loving reaction, he got his editorial hat on. Karan and I first “met” (digitally) as lovers of poetry. We liked each other’s styles and decided to workshop our poems together. Ever since the beginning, this has been the bedrock of our relationship: our poetry, our work. It’s not so much a specific moment that stands out for me, then, but rather the very weird and beautiful situation itself. The one I love for whom I’ve written the poem is also the first who “critiqued” it and helped me make it a better portrayal of my love by making it a better poem.

december: This year, we’re celebrating 10 years of publishing december. Can you tell us how literary magazines like december have been important in your literary career? What do you think the importance of the lit mag is to literary culture at large?

Shannan: december is a stunning and carefully crafted magazine with editors that connect with you on a personal, individual level. This is so deeply necessary. Literary magazines are indispensable for writers both beginning to get their feet wet in publishing and those already established and desiring to reach new readers. People sometimes say that “no one reads lit mags” or that “lit mags are dying”. But then how is it that every year there are more lit mags than the last? The truth is that both writers and readers want more places for their work. And they deserve those. december is a shining example of such a befitting place. And I also love the culture of encouraging subscriptions that you unabashedly espouse. Sure, we all can’t afford subscriptions to every single place…but this community engagement, even if for one or two months, allows us to open our world a little wider — something sorely needed in the chaotic condition of things as they are right now.

december: What are you working on now?

Shannan: I’m writing a magic-realist horror novel set across India, Canada, the U.S. and New Zealand. Also, across time. Also, one of the chapters is narrated by a frying pan.

december: What’s something else you love to do or are passionate about outside of writing?

Shannan: Karan and I love watching cricket together. Our daughter, Anasuya (who is 3 now), sometimes joins in with shouts of “catch! catch!” when the ball is clearly going past the boundary.

Besides this, I’m also really passionate about the lit mag Karan and I have started this year. It’s called ONLY POEMS, and y’all should totally check it out! (onlypoems.net)

december: Where can people find out more about you?

Instagram: @shannanmania
Twitter/X: @shannanmania
Website: shannanmann.com
Other: onlypoems.net (the litmag I run)