NEWEST POETRY COLLECTION!

In the Pool of the Sea’s Shoulder  (Dancing Girl Press, 2024)

This long-form poem is inspired by a 19th c. statue created in Fukushima and by a man whose employment with New Mexico’s Education Department made sure that no child was left behind during the 2nd Bush presidency, and whose volunteering with the Coalition for Equality was instrumental in developing the state’s pioneering human rights protection legislated in 2003. 

Perfect for yourself, for a sweetheart, for anyone who’s been awed by art, feared radiation, grieved the death of someone dear, worked for justice.

In the Pool of the Sea’s Shoulder is a multi-vocal poem with parts spoken by Marie Curie, the Radium Girls, and a mysterious fisherman. A grieving sister’s encounters with a 19th century metal sculpture originally made in Fukushima and its associated legends of the sea prompt memories of her deceased brother’s activist years ensuring addition of LGBT+ to the New Mexico’s crimes law. He and his life partner converse about their lives in the high desert of the Southwest amid the nuclear industry’s benchmarks of Los Alamos and Church Rock.

Order a signed copy here.                         Order here from Dancing Girl Press

In the pool of the sea’s shoulder is a voyage of quirkiness, outrage and underlying anxiety, and many voices—apt for talking statues, news clips, and interjections from the deceased. —Janet MacFadyen

This poem is utterly beautiful. Such a complex and moving tribute to your brother, reaching and fanning beyond him, embracing all of us, really. At first, I resisted the statue, as I resist museums with too much signage. Let me just stand here and look, I think. Which is exactly what you allowed and invited me to do. With each reading, I saw more. —Ann McCutchan

A modern classic; an elemental deep-dive. Within the elegiac energy, there are echoes of Muriel Rukeyser’s activist commitment. Tender yet ludic, this is a work of searing intelligence. —James Byrne

♫ ♫ ♫

♫ ♫ ♫

Guest author stint at Best American Poetry during harvest season 2022 resulted in 4 flower reports:
Steady My Laden Head     Later Flowers for the Bees     Never Cease     With the Sun

Steady My Laden Head

LATER FLOWERS FOR THE BEES

NEVER CEASE

With the Sun

   

 

♫

Enjoy! as Guest Poetry Editor for Persimmon Tree I selected a marvelous sheaf of East Coast poets.

photo by Paula Schultz for Persimmon Tree

poets and editors

A lovely Saturday this was! Cynthia Hogue invited me on as guest poet for Tram Editions’ launch of her chapbook CONTAIN in July 2022. Cynthia wrote this brilliant collection during and for the first year of coronavirus pandemic, “threading the space with love.” The readings were the best! live theater, no video recording. This screen shot shows poets and editors basking in the Zoom applause: clockwise, me, Cynthia, Aliah Lavonne Tigh, Elizabyth Hiscox, Glenn Shaheen, Priscilla Wathington. Two of the poems I read are those mentioned in July 2021 entry below, ‘A— uses more ordnance…’ and ‘Midlothian,’ published in Matter: a (somewhat) monthly journal of political poetry and commentary.

♫ ♫ ♫  ♫ ♫ ♫♫ ♫ ♫  ♫ ♫ ♫   July 2021 brought the publication of 2 poems I treasure.

‘A— uses more ordnance in a single campaign than B—used in epochs of imperial rule’

May you not be subjected to civilizing missions
May you want to continue more than you want to stop
May God move your muscles as you lie there
May you be passed over by the local police…

Read the entire poem at Matter: a (somewhat) monthly journal of political poetry and commentary. And then its companion ‘Midlothian.’

The first began while I was teaching in Qatar 2006 as my country the U.S. bombed other countries in the Gulf region; the second poem began on a residency in Scotland 2001 during Britain’s foot-and-mouth pandemic.

♫ ♫ ♫                  ♫ ♫ ♫                ♫ ♫ ♫

2021 began with the fierce beauty of my poem ‘Proserpine’ on the pages of TAB Journal’s annual print issue. Ordinarily, this gorgeous publication is distributed free of charge at AWP. But with Associated Writing Programs conference going virtual that year, TAB kindly offered complimentary copies to librarians and writing teachers, and put the entire issue online. “I fell in with a man from a small country….” See—and hear—the entire ‘Proserpine’ at my ‘Text & Audio‘ tab.
♫ ♫ ♫

“who is your favorite poet?” !?!

A 3-minute movie here! My favorite birthday present ever. Captured by a friend while Peter and I were gardening on an April day 2020. When my dear husband asked what I wanted for my birthday, hearing this poem aloud was my request: ‘Good Friday Riding Westward’ by John Donne.
Read by Peter Fortunato
Filmed by Ishion Hutchinson while Korah and I applauded.

plus this essay online: The Fiddlehead requested & posted my essay about that favorite poet

after #285 (fall 2020) featured my ‘Base of Parnassus’ and ‘The Entire Table Lifted Spoons.’
(kudos to the Atlantic Maritimes!)

♫ ♫ ♫

♫ ♫ ♫

♫ ♫ ♫   Stop by & say hello on my Contact  form!