four poems

four poems

I have a folder where I put poems I’ve printed or been given or copied out of books. Maybe someday I’ll put them in a notebook so I’ll think to look in it more often. Three poems were mentioned in connection with the manuscripts we discussed in my...
evidence

evidence

In honor of National Poetry Month, I finished Mary Oliver’s Evidence, which I’ve been reading in bits and pieces since October. I enjoyed it, but I have to admit I’m not really a nature woman. Still, I loved the ending of “Swans”…...
lines connect in thin ways

lines connect in thin ways

On October 28, 2002, a rainy night in Georgia, I drove from Columbus to Atlanta to hear the poet Lucille Clifton read at Georgia Tech. If I remember correctly, she opened by reciting the short poem, “Why Some People be Mad at Me Sometimes.” Lucille Clifton...
a brief history of time

a brief history of time

In most books of poetry, I put a little check in the Table of Contents by the poems I really like. In Shaindel Beers’ first collection of poetry, A Brief History of Time, I liked so many poems that I switched to marking the poems I didn’t love with a tiny...