Emily Calvo

Calvo is a poet and watercolor artist who incorporates many of her poems into her paintings. This year, the Guild Literary Complex recognized Calvo as one of 30 Chicago Writers to Watch. As an instructor, Calvo was a poet-in-residence at a Chicago public school through the Chicago Poetry Center’s education program. In 2014, she released her first collection of poems, Lending Color to the Otherwise Absurd with a grant from the City of Chicago. Her poems and art have been published in numerous publications, both online and in print. She has also featured on radio, at libraries, galleries and festivals including Art Chicago, Women & Children First, the Uptown Poetry Slam as well as the Fontenay le Comte Civic Center in France.

Teaching More than Poetry

The after-lunch period sun crowns

Maria’s paper

where a poet like a Roman goddess

has carved a poem of passion

from syllables of wanting

the world to be different.

The girl leans into the page

like a desk lamp in a darkened room,

studies the poet’s blue black hair,

sharp jaw,

raw wisdom in

lines that speak of boundaries that shift--

like snakes in grass--

the venom in this legacy

and how the world should be different.

When my shadow fans across her desk

she moves her gaze up

taps her index finger on the woman’s photo.

With the wonder of someone

who has just watched birth

she whispers

This is my favorite poet…

so far.

Her eyes swirl with cool determination

as her pen-armed hand moves to paper

and I know her world will be different.