For Kathi Wolfe
(listen to the poem, read by the author)
You resuscitated Helen
lifting her out of the shadow lands of piety
putting a cocktail in her hands,
sass in her mouth and a politics for today in her mind.
You moved closer to Helen.
Helen closer to you.
But not content to be Pygmalian
you summoned Uppity
the blindista sporting a feather boa,
rolling her sightless eyes,
and reclaiming ableist metaphors.
Still,
for you, a poems was always
about the story
the person, not the politics,
the character, not the cause.
Your poetry gave us the green light
to reveal our own stories,
your constant cane and trenchant humor insisting
beauty is still a verb.
Read Michael Northen’s review of Plums for Months by Zaji Cox in this issue of Wordgathering.
Back to Top of Page | Back to Honoring and Celebrating Kathi Wolfe | Back to Volume 18, Issue 2 – Winter 2024-2025
About Michael Northen
Michael Northen was the facilitator of the Inglis House Poetry Workshop from 1997-2010 and the editor of Wordgathering from 2007-2019. He was also an editor of the anthology, Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability and the anthology of disability short fiction, The Right Way to Be Crippled and Naked (both from Cinco Puntos Press). He is currently working on an anthology of disability poetry to be published by Northwestern University Press in 2026.