WRITE ABOUT AN EMPTY BIRD CAGE, Elaina M. Ellis, Write Bloody Publishing, 2011. I bought this odd collection of poems by Elaina M. Ellis a few years ago, at the Chuckanut Writers Conference. Every so often I pick it up and am inspired by its bravery, its sexual bravado, and its writing prompts. The poems […]
THE WALK SHE TAKES, Neile Graham, MoonPath Press, 2019. This morning I took a walk across Scotland—and across several centuries—with Neile Graham. She reminded me of something I was told when I visited Chartres Catheral: don’t travel as a tourist, but as a pilgrim. “Why did I leave my shore for another?,” Graham asks in […]
THE GRIEF OF A HAPPY LIFE, Christopher Howell, Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, University of Washington Press, 2019. On the back cover, Kathy Fagan writes: “Howell has been for many years my go-to poet of choice when I need to be reminded of what a poem can do, what a poetry collection can do…” I can […]
This morning I cracked open another poetry book that proves resistant to being read quickly. But I also found a new post from blogger Deborah Brasket, waiting patiently for me in my voluminous gmail. Brasket turns to the poetry of Czeslaw Milocz to find direction and comfort in our difficult times. Days After the World […]