Poets rejoice

It is a lovely grey morning on the coast of Maine as I drink my tea and get ready for a day of planting in the garden. Finally the ground is prepped and ready for the rest of my seedlings which have been waiting in the greenhouse. I am always inspired by planting. It seems to me a connection to what I do with words. That is why I love going out to the yard to write or to the greenhouse to write. I have a tall stool there and use the potting bench as a desk. If it rains, so much the better. The sound of it on the glass roof of the g.h. is so thrilling.

On a reading note, here are a few things I have been reading:

1. Usher by BH Fairchild --- just out from Norton, this new work is challenging me in ways I have not been in some time. The poems are meaty and rich, with a sense of time and urgency that leaps over actual time. I have read the poems several times each and am now making notes in the margins (I never used to do this but now can't help myself...more on this activity in a separate post)

2. Rosary of Bones by Jennifer MacPherson --- this is my second deep reading of this one--- it has been out since 07 --- I am at the notes in the margin stage with it now. A lovely collection of poems that simply take my breath away. Some of the poems have their birth in Iowa where we both studied with Michael Dennis Browne. I recognize them and smile to see how fully they have grown and how solid and steady Jennifer's hand is over the work. I am particularly fond of "Without Trees" and read it over and over along with "The Bone Poem" which is simply a fabulous poem. 'nuf said! Just read these poems!

3. Inflorescence by Sarah Hannah ---written before her tragic death. I sigh deeply here to think of all the wonderful voices silenced by suicide or cancer or ... or... or... these poems are both brilliant (in a light-giving way as well as an intellectual way) and steady. I read them and wonder "how did she do that?" which of course is the greatest compliment one can pay a poet.

4. Embryos & Idiots by Larissa Szporluk --- one of my favorite poets discovered by accident years ago in Iowa --- I recommend particularly "The Recluse" and "Twilight Wedge" both poems of surprising edginess and light.

OK that's enough for now. 

I'm signing off and will give you a short poem in the next post. It's one I wrote for the Poem A Day challenge during poetry month. THAT was some discipline. I am working now on revisions of the ones I feel want to stay in my life.