#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Moon Jellyfish, by Jennifer Martelli, first published in Poetry, 2020

[From her website] Jennifer Martelli has received fellowships from The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Monson Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, Poetry, Best of the Net Anthology, Braving the Body Anthology, Verse Daily, Plume, The Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of Psychic Party Under the Bottle Tree (forthcoming, December, 2024, Lily Poetry Review Books), as well as The Queen of Queens, which won the Italian American Studies Association Book Award and was shortlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award. Jennifer Martelli is co-poetry editor for MER. www.jennmartelli.com

All day, shocked and saddened by the passing of Jennifer Martelli. I met Jennifer a number of times around poetry events in the Boston area and always admired her poetry very much. Her voice was powerful, her poetry finely crafted, and especially timely. The last time I chatted with Jennifer we were in the airport leaving Los Angeles where we had both just attended AWP. It was a warm and cheerful few moments that brightened my day. I wish I had gotten to know her better. I admired her as a poet so much. Poets everywhere today are grieving the loss of her life. Her poetry survives her, as do many who knew and loved her. In 2020, her poem, “Moon Jellyfish” was published in Poetry. She reads it below as a tribute for the 20th Anniversary of Cervana Barva Press. Listen and watch her captivating reading. Bless you, Jennifer, and thank you. You are gone far too soon and with so many poems written, too many poems left to write. Jennifer’s most recent book, Psychic Party at the Bottle Tree, published by Lily Poetry Review Press.