What You Must Know First About Me I am first and foremost a girls’ girl and a poets’ poet. A daughter to all mothers, including fathers. A father to all … Read the rest

Conception After, in the pigpen, my grandfather dropped a lit cigarette into the straw. They rushed the animals out as the roof went up in smoke, embers whirling in the … Read the rest

Encounters The black snake I must encounter to reach my writing studio is a real snake. It elongates its rubbery body across warm concrete, then slips into grass, undular in … Read the rest

The Understudy i. Stuttering and cluttering in front of a blank wall, I spent so much time rehearsing  the words to avoid ire. I always liked watching my brother learning … Read the rest

Mounds and Trenches Robert Morris(Lithograph on Wove Paper)1969 The eye is a liar. Easily duped, the mind interposes memories onto the everlasting present moment. Each tree is hundreds … Read the rest

In the Bible Belt everyone prays for you, especially if they don’t like you very much. As I understand it, praying for someone you don’t even like is worth more … Read the rest

Translated by Sekyo Nam Haines Temple Bell The way ripe fruits drop from branches, sounds of temple bell drop from empty space. Where sounds fall, they burst into light and … Read the rest

The Morning Lying still under a swift fan, I understand significance. By a window you have also lain formless, in a warmth and in a passing rain. Categories line the … Read the rest

The Thirtieth Year after Lucille Clifton I had expected to be an ordinary woman. Dreamed of daughters, beauty, life made whole by them. Then the year of losing came, the … Read the rest

Dear Time, how many knees wasted at the wrong pulpit? thought i worshipped the future, but it was pleasure all along. thought my prayer aimed for peace, but it was … Read the rest