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Erica Knowles

Erica Knowles wrote, "Erica is a student at URI, and has been writing her whole life. She keeps a blog (barely) and too many journals. After ten years in Atlanta, Georgia, she has recently returned to her native home of Rhode Island. She also enjoys drawing and painting, as well as singing and playing her mini piano."

*
2/17/2012:   The Origami Poems Project expresses great sadness over the passing of our friend, Erica Knowles, who died in a car accident just after midnight, Wednesday, February 15th in So Kingstown, RI.  Erica, 23, was a Junior at URI. We knew her best as a poet.  Erica would email us out of the blue with a collection of poems that just fell together as an Origami book. Always cryptic but enthusiastic with her emails, she let her poetry sing out and beyond the page. Oh, and yes, she would always send a photo that perfectly completed the cover.
 

We are grateful to have Erica's poetry available - Thank you, Erica.

*  2014 February Anniversary Tribute edition, Travel Light, is published below.  Thank you again to Erica and to her loving family.
 
As of her birthday on 11-24-2019, there have been over 22,000 hits on her webpage.
 

Erica's microchaps & selected poems are available below. 

Origami Microchaps

Selected Poem(s)

 

Travel Light

   

Click on title to download PDF microchap.

Travel Light

Cover Photo selected by
Ashley Knowles
Erica’s 1st Typewriter

Travel light

You will learn what it is you want along the way. You can't start a journey with a pack filled to the brim of things that you "might" need. Leave room for the things you will learn and come to love. Leave room for the things that you will discover and the things that will define you. Leave room and leave the rest, it will only confuse you and drown you in clutter, muddling your thoughts and your vision of yourself, blocking your best path. Your best self. Be in a state of constant motion, a state of doing and bettering. Never stop learning. Never stop pushing forward. If you can do this than I truly have no doubt that your answers will become obvious and reveal themselves. But first you have to let go of everything you don't need and don't know.
Erica Knowles © Facebook,
May 18, 2011

March 11, 2011

God or Whoever

Dear God or Whoever,
I never ask for anything
Except to not run out of gas.
And forgive me,
God or Whoever but,
I don't think that even really counts.
So if you could just listen
To this one thing
I'd really really like that.
Thanks a lot,
I hope you heard me down here.
Or wherever I am in relation to you.
Alright,
I don't do this often
(As I'm sure you know)
So, take it easy.

October 8, 2011 

Surfer's Path 
 
I'm folding up 
The Surfer's Path t-shirt 
That came in the mail, 
That you never wore, 
But I know if you were still here 
You would have. 
I lay it out on my bed, 
So when I get home 
After this long night 
It will remind me of how 
As a child, you would let me pick out 
One of your t-shirts to wear to bed. 
And with the hemline below my knees, 
You would tuck me in, 
And if you were still here 
I know you still would 
If only I had ever asked.
 
 

Selected Poems 2008-2011

   
Click on above title to download PDF microchap.
Selected Poems
Photo chosen by her sister, Ashley Knowles
 
We knew Erica best as a fellow poet.
She would email us out of the blue
sending us a collection of poems
that would magically fall together
to form the perfect Origami book.
It was difficult to choose just five poems
for this collection.
We hope you will love them. -
OPP editors

Wild Desire

Careful, careful
Is what one must be
With fire.
And so the same with
Wild desire.
 
Tracing hearts
 

If you stand at the door
At just her height,
Breathe on the glass.
You will find there
The outline of a heart
She has traced
Innumerable times.
A promise:
You are never alone.

 

Erica Knowles © 2011

 

Angel Stern


Spun in from the universe
The world aglow,
Not a thing to my name
Save for a smile
With no reason or rationality.
I pass the time,
Grabbing at ropes of light,
Climbing to higher elevations.
Encircled by pinpricks of color,
We are chaos at its finest.
Polaris winks from the center
Of the night sky
Daring me to think of a wish.
Morning light creeps quietly
And as the night begins to fade
I reach up and slip the
Guide star into my pocket
So I am never lost.

Miles & I.

   
Click itle to download PDF microchap.
 
Miles

Note from the Author

I think grief
tends to be something
that makes the whole world
a big empty lonely space.
It knocks the wind out of you,
leaves you wordless
and unable to function normally.
It makes you forget who you are without it.
 
 

Miles & I.

Miles dances with me
In my cold and lonely apartment.
Steering me into the sunshine,
Guiding my steps and
Whispering words between
The flutter of sheet music.

I am the notes played
On the keys of a very old piano,
And as I occupy every inch
Of this place I call home
I realize that waltzing with ghosts
Is not as lonesome as one might think.

 

Repetition of Sound

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.
 
Repetition of Sound
 
Cover design by Erica Knowles

The Repetition of Sound


Repeat a word enough times
And it just becomes sounds,
And sounds don’t mean a thing
Unless
You can hear what they truly are,
In which case
They might become words
And speak to you,
Like an arrow to the heart.

Words

If I could marry
The pen and the paper
I would.
Let words be my savior.
I only wish they could
Love me back,
Instead of just saying they do.
 
Good Company
 

It’s true,
I prefer the company
Of my own imagination,
But anyone who doesn’t
Is no kind of dreamer
At all.

 
Erica Knowles © 2011

 

The Wild


I want to be something
To make a pulse race.
I may be human,
But my heart is a wild animal,
Racing fiercely;
Raging against my rib cage,
Untamed and unobtainable
It beats recklessly
Desperate to escape
I cannot be held.

Off the Map


I’d love to dance
Off the map,
Not caring if anyone
I’ve ever known
Even missed me at all.
Balancing on the horizon
The only friends I need
Are me,
The sky,
And the sea.

 

Imaginary Places

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.
 

On The Run

I know if I remain immobile,
This melancholy dust will settle
Fine and light over my living skin,
Making it forget the sun,
And the rain,
And all the things in the world.
My muse is on the run.
 
Erica Knowles © 2011

 

Shadow puppets


I caught a wish outside my
window
And put it in a mason jar
On my nightstand.
And some nights,
When it’s only me
I let it out,
And make shadow puppets
In the warmth of its soft glow.

Dad-E

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.
Dad E by Erica Knowles
Cover photo by Ben Nelson
 
Poems written for my father.

What I'll give you

I really want
To give you
Something good
Because you gave me
My life
And then the world.
But all I have
Are these few words
And a love too big
To ever be
Described by them
 
Faith

 

If there is
Anything in this world
I truly and wholly
Believe
It is your promises.

Lullaby

Safety is
Your voice;
Tupelo Honey
While the
World turns fuzzy.

 

Erica Knowles © 2011

 

What you gave me


I remember
Being chased by the moon
On endless drives home
And your smile.
All these years later
I realize
You gave me that smile,
And the moon
Still chases me.

Undeniable


A laugh,
A smile,
The right angle
In the mirror.
A corny joke,
Or a profound appreciation
Of seaglass
Or the sun.
And in a moment
That may have lasted
Less than a second
It is undeniable
.

All the World

   
Click title to download PDF microchap
.
All the World
Poems for learning to stand
on your own two feet
and inspired by the beautiful
and sometimes devastating
honesty of life. - EK

Tracing Hearts

If you stand at the door
At just her height,
Breathe on the glass.
You will find there
The outline of a heart
She has traced
Innumerable times.
A promise:
You are never alone.
 
Erica Knowles © 2011

 

 

Wrighter's Block

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.
 
Cover photo by Erica Knowles

Ghost

Someone's hand upon my face,
Fingers laced into my hair.
A silent promise,
A calming presence,
You are not alone.
I exhale
And fog up the car window.
A word written there
I had forgotten.
Inscribed a thousand years ago.
But the lonesome mystery remains:
Whose fingerprints are these?
A ghost’s.
These words on my windows are
Promises that died long ago.
And like the silver vapor of my breath
My calm slips away
Leaving me alone.
 
Erica Knowles © 2010

 

 

Tuesday's Aftermath

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.
 
Tuesday's Aftermath

Advice

I wish heartbreak was brief
But it never is.
A good heartbreak is like a good love.
Important.
So remember,
Never dye your hair when you're upset.
Resist the temptation to text.
Never look back, you can't go back.
Burn bridges.
If they are necessary, you'll rebuild them.
Wear a seat belt when driving
Under the influence of heartbreak.
And when you really let go
Be sure the only one bear witness is a radio.
And only let them see you bleed once.
Just so they know you're human.
Don't panic love,
Everything is going to be wonderful.
 
Erica Knowles © 2010

 

 

Either Side of Midnight

   

Click title to download PDF microchap.

Either Side of Midnight

Angel Stern

Spun in from the universe
The world aglow,
Not a thing to my name
Save for a smile
With no reason or rationality.
I pass the time,
Grabbing at ropes of light,
Climbing to higher elevations.
Encircled by pinpricks of color,
We are chaos at its finest.
Polaris winks from the center
Of the night sky
Daring me to think of a wish.
Morning light creeps quietly
And as the night begins to fade
I reach up and slip the
Guide star into my pocket
So I am never lost.
Erica Knowles © 2010

 

To Become Undone


They always said blue was my color,
But I prefer to drive late at night
In the inky black of the witching hours.
Where the lines blur together,
And the clock on the dashboard
Ticks like a time bomb.
"Rid yourself of demons," the devil told me,
And the second hand sped up.
I thought about the evil hanging there,
Like stars in my soup.
When the angel in my backseat whispered
"Don't think, just be thoughtful,"
So I let the night creep inside,
And my thoughts fell miles behind
On this empty highway.
Leaving me,
A wax girl melting under the gaze of God,
Unwinding the wheels in my watch.

A Grand Thing

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.
 

More

I would like to be more than a spare key
Or a half remembered dream.
The faceless nameless woman,
The do-er of his laundry
Forever searching for love
In the pockets of his jeans.
I want to be more than the wrong flavor
Of coffee or vitamin water.
More than the wrong song
By the right artist.
More than underappreciated.
More than background noise,
The comforting sounds of morning.
Erica Knowles © 2010

 

 

Lucid Chaos

   
Click title to download PDF microchap.

She

She examined each thing,
Strange and slightly transparent,
With wide-eyed curiosity
Amazed she'd carried such
Treasures inside her
All along.
And she realized with
Astonishment,
She didn't know herself
At all.
Erica Knowles © 2010