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Poetry

Natalli Amato

Natalli Amato is a poet, fiction writer, and journalist from upstate New York. She is the author of the poetry collection On a Windless Night and Burning Barrel (forthcoming from Finishing Line Press). Natalli was awarded the Edwin T. Whiffen Poetry Prize as an undergraduate at Syracuse University. Her poetry is deeply inspired by the North Country region of New York State where she grew up and continues to be drawn to. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies and numerous literary publications, and she is a poetry reader for Carve Magazine. Outside of poetry, Natalli has covered music, lifestyle, and entertainment for Rolling Stone. She is currently working on her first novel. She lives in Sackets Harbor, New York.

Supplicating Yeshe Tsogyal

The Shambhala teacher teaches how the mother of Buddhism
threw herself onto the floor, writhing, clawing at her face,
begging her beloved –
do not leave me.

All this time –
I could have been kissing my hold-tight fists
knowing they were not so different
from the enlightened’s.

All this time
I could have been praying
to Chino or Lena or Megan or Jackie.

But no one risked telling me
that we share so much
with holy women
at our most rabid,
at our most ravaged.
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