december spotlight: poet — shannan mann
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)