A Worm Moon In August 2025
Welcome to A Worm Moon, a poetry newsletter where I, Phoenix Yemi, share what I've been reading and writing through the month.
Late summer, and the depth of the colour blue. It’s the end of August, it’s the beginning of September, and I’m weary of the mulch and the rain. My bed is the kindest — and all my energy is reserved for crime dramas based in New Zealand. My dream vacation is The Shire, with my boyfriend in ¾ length trousers.
Until then, my head is in a book, asking the wind to show me what I need to hear so I can keep moving. Today it’s Spells: 21st Century Occult Poetry, edited by Sarah Shin and Rebecca Tamás. This is what comes first.
And I am soothed by the words in front of me. "Process says, I just am, & look at me be. // Process is participatory: there is space for you." I let go of the destination. I surrender to the in-between, to the beauty of fumbling for the right word to tell the softness of her angular face. It's all roses.
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This is where I say pray for me, but all of us are doomed. The future belongs to climate change. The future belongs to self-mythology. I write it to make it so.
And this is where Octavia Butler appears, and this how I begin to prepare. The process is the pirouette.
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The poem is Reflections On Shame In Sacred Spaces by Kate Duckney. I read the last page first, and it takes hold of me. I don't want to count the good things or the bad things, everything is grey. And when Duckney writes of evil, I remember 'Wild Geese’ by Mary Oliver, 'You, Doctor Martin'by Anne Sexton, that "we are magic talking to itself, noisy and alone. Once I was beautiful, now I am myself."
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A poem by Robin Coste Lewis. What you already know, but can't yet stomach. This poem is a haunting reminder of how life delivers its truths, sometimes twice, at our very doorstep.
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What will survive of us is what we dared to say. This is the last stanza in a poem I wrote about the stubbornness of hope. May we witness liberation.
Thank you for reading. I hope you've liked the poetry.
What poems have you been reading this month?
If you feel like sharing, please send them my way. You can email me at phoenixyemi@gmail.com or you can find me on Instagram @phoenixyemoja
💌 With Love, Phoenix 💌
