Introducing: the new Washington State Poet Laureate — The Poetry Department . . . aka The Boynton Blog

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Rena Priest has been appointed 2021-2023 Washington State Poet Laureate by Governor Jay Inslee. A member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation, Priest will be the first Indigenous poet to assume the role. Priest’s literary debut, Patriarchy Blues, was honored with the 2018 American Book Award, and her most […]

Introducing: the new Washington State Poet Laureate — The Poetry Department . . . aka The Boynton Blog

Miriam O’Neal – Two Poems

Miriam O’Neal‘s work has appeared in AGNI, Blackbird Journal, Southern Poetry Review, Ragazine, and many other journals. The Body Dialogues (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2020), was nominated for a Massachusetts Center for the Book Award. She also is a 2019 Pushcart nominee and was a finalist for the 2019 Disquiet International Poetry Prize. A portion of her translation of Italian poet, Alda Merini’s, Rose Volanti appeared in On The Seawall, in Fall of 2019.

For the Birds

For months I’ve grackled about this plague,
chickadeeed my thoughts on isolation—
blue jayed about the unmasked by day,
starlinged the cluttered night, tried rafting
past my anger the way the turkey’s copper
feathers dip and glow as they cross the lawn,
but ended, each time, sparrowed by the loss
of waking lonely, gold-finch heart undone—

The wrenish sun still cold, I thread the needle
of my wish to robin forward. And…

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Two Poems (Lindsey Heatherly) — Rejection Letters

Vegas, Baby You never once took me on any business trips,but you took her to Vegas when you started dating.I wonder if she watched HGTV in the hotel roomand ordered eggs, over-easy, from the in-house restaurantwhile you had pissing contests with middle-aged menin leather office chairs. Maybe she went to the poolfor a swim or took […]

Two Poems (Lindsey Heatherly) — Rejection Letters

Conestoga Zen, an anthology

Rustin Larson

Conestoga Zen
Contents
Gary Young, Three Poems… 5
Christopher Seid, Three Poems… 6
Grace Richards, Screenvision #1, #2 & #3… 9
Matthew MacLeod, Poem– after Jack Spicer… 12
Helga Kidder, Three Poems… 13
Julie Sharp Emmons, Voices of Dawn… 16
Jennifer Grant, Life: Brought to You by Hasbro, Circa 1977… 17
Paula Yup, Three Poems… 18
W.E. Butts, Against Happiness… 20
William Kemmett, Poem… 22
Michael Carrino, The Cricket… 23
Margo Berdeshevsky, God Bless The Child That’s Got His Own… 24
Samn Stockwell, Sprite… 26
Steve Rose, Senior Swimmers… 27
Guna Moran, Good News… 28
Sabah Carrim, I Promise Not To Steal Your Words… 30
Tom Bierovic, Two Poems… 31
Artwork: “Moving to Canada” by Kate Knox… 32
S Stephanie, Come Back (After Kate Knox’s “Moving to Canada”)… 33
Stephen Page, It is Windy Today… 34
Suzanne Rhodenbaugh, Three Poems… 36
Rhoda Orme-Johnson, Two Poems… 39
Margo Von Strohuber, Three Poems… 42

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Hen Eggs 2

Hen Eggs 2

by Stephen page

It is exceptionally cold this morning for autumn;

A tenuous fog clings to the frost.

I don corduroys, a wool jacket, a belt knife

And ready myself for adventure–Indian 

Fighting, puma killing; but today

My youngest grandchild grasps my hand.

I lift her and step outside the kitchen

door.   She is one and walks well already

But I have to carry her because the collies

Frighten her: they are mountainous dragons

With fire-wet tongues and hot breath

And teeth like jagged sun-bleached rocks.

She is armored in full-body polar fleece

And peers through the visor with wood-green

Eyes and sees that the collies lead us

Through the mist guarding us from trees;

She smiles down at them from her throne 

But will not allow me to set her upon

Her booted feet as we head toward

The chickens, or kaw-kaws as she has named

Them as early as this morning’s breakfast.

There are no fresh eggs in the coop; her eyes

Worry, and I assume a ranch-hand bandit 

Must have robbed them, but as I step out

Of the gate I notice a possum print

In the mud.   The mist has lifted

And the sun burnt off most of the frost

So we journey around the yard, I showing

Her how to smell the sharp-scented jacaranda

Leaves, to touch and name the autumn

Flowers, to discern the silhouette 

of mockingbird from ratbird;

her weight, her weight, strengthening my arms.

*This poem as published in the Linden Avenue Literary Journal

and later appeared in A Ranch Bordering the Salty River

Sanaë Lemoine on The Lover, King Lear, and A Little Life

11 RAPID-FIRE BOOK RECS FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE MARGOT AFFAIR

Book Marks: Favorite re-read?

Sanaë Lemoine: These two short stories by Lydia Davis: “The Mother” for its delightful darkness and “St. Martin” for the onion pie.

BM: What book do you think your book is most in conversation with?

SL: One very generous reviewer mentioned Ian McEwan’s Atonement for the imaginative teenager and Rachel Cusk for the discursive storytelling, and although I didn’t see these parallels as I wrote my novel, in retrospect, they make sense. Because The Margot Affair is narrated by a seventeen-year-old girl, it was important that I capture her young voice, a combination of rash naïveté and precocious wisdom. At the heart of my novel is a difficult mother-daughter relationship. For all of this, I drew inspiration from The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, and Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa. (It’s hard to choose just one!)

BM: A book that blew your mind?

SL: Veronica by Mary Gaitskill.

read rest of article here: https://bookmarks.reviews/sanae-lemoine-on-the-lover-king-lear-and-a-little-life/

Index of Women

I just preordered this:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/659571/index-of-women-by-amy-gerstler/

I look forward to reading it.

x

ABOUT INDEX OF WOMEN

From a “maestra of invention” (The New York Times) who is at once supremely witty, ferociously smart, and emotionally raw, a new collection of poems about womanhood

Amy Gerstler has won acclaim for sly, sophisticated, and subversive poems that find meaning in unexpected places. Women’s voices, from childhood to old age, dominate this new collection of rants, dramatic monologues, confessions and laments. A young girl muses on virginity. An aging opera singer rages against the fact that she must quit drinking. A woman in a supermarket addresses a head of lettuce. The tooth fairy finally speaks out. Both comic and prayer-like, these poems wrestle with mortality, animality, love, gender, and what it is to be human.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy Gerstler is a writer of fiction, poetry, and journalism whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including the Paris Review and Best American Poetry. Her 1990 book Bitter Angel won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Previous titles from Penguin are Crown of Weeds, 1997, and Nerve Storm, 1993.