THE HOPPER POETRY PRIZE
OCTOBER 2020We are pleased to announce that Mimi German has received honorable mention for The Hopper Poetry Prize for her manuscript Eyes of Horse Hair.
What does it mean to be housed in this increasingly complex world? What does it mean to be houseless? Eyes of Horse Hair explores these questions with lyric, evocative constellations of images, where we see how “lavender begs to the sky between the hours,” and that shows—and evokes—so much, without having to be explicit. These brief poems reverberate beyond what is on the page, giving readers much to think on and feel long after the final page. Stunning music is scattered throughout all of these poems.
—The Hopper Editors
Mimi German is a poet and activist living in Portland, Oregon. She has a new monthly poetry column in Weekly Hubris and her poetry and essays have been published in Three Line Poetry, The Mantle, NewVerse News, Public Pool, and CounterPunch. Enjoy a poem from Eyes of Horse Hair below.Afflicted
she holds her breath as if she were holding god when she could no longer stand when her eyes bulged like a
blowfish on a hook she exhaled and god let go of her sometimes she waited for angels to appear in the silence not
knowing that the silence was an angel appearing the doctors said she was afflicted because she could not shut her
eyes she dreamed she never slept which wasn’t a dream she was the colors of all things and all things were she
in the early morning hour she would lay on the ground feeling the moon tied tightly to her belly she was its rock
tied to a tree when the ground swayed she laughed on her swing as the moon exhaled she tucked in the seasons’
corners she collected leaves and sometimes dust she walked the shimmering finless trail of scales the tiptoe of
jangled light she rubbed her skin in sand to feel whole while dipping her tilt in the lost lake uncertain of the
footings she knew the notes of wind yesterday she met a young man who was high on living he told her there is
beauty she thought he was a spirit a truck blew its horn startling her back into the stark she inhaled
