Everyday Miracles #2sDayPoems

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And Other Poems, Bloodaxe Books, Elizabeth Bishop, everyday miracles, Stephanie Norgate, women poets

 

I was introduced to the work of British poet Stephanie Norgate last October when one of her poems came across the fantastic And Other Poems blog. You’ll want to subscribe to their posts if you aren’t already. Go ahead, I’ll wait a minute while you sign up. Anyway, I remember being so surprised by its ending and very moved by these very “everyday” miracles. It stuck with me for a long time and I revisited it this morning while preparing this post. I’m pairing it here with Elizabeth Bishop’s A Miracle for Breakfast for your #2sDayPoems enjoyment.

 

MIRACLE

by Stephanie Norgate

In supermarkets, strapped
in a trolley,

on the motorway,
belted in the back of a car,

under the foundered houses,
open mouthed and fed by drips,

in a box drilled with holes,
in the hold of a boat,

in fish crates and on cardboard,
on pallets and straw,

on a bed of needles
on the forest…

FULL TEXT HERE

 

 

A MIRACLE FOR BREAKFAST

by Elizabeth Bishop

At six o’clock we were waiting for coffee,
waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb
that was going to be served from a certain balcony
–like kings of old, or like a miracle.
It was still dark. One foot of the sun
steadied itself on a long ripple in the river.

The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river.
It was so cold we hoped that the coffee
would be very hot, seeing that the sun
was not going to warm us; and that the crumb
would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle.
At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.

He stood for a minute alone on the balcony
looking over our heads toward the river.
A servant handed him the makings of…

FULL TEXT HERE

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#2sDayPoems :Purple Gorillas& Purses

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American Poets, Bloodaxe Books, Grief, Handbag, Matthew Dickman, Norton, Ruth Fainlight, The New Yorker, The Poetry Archive, Wonderland

Photo by Tim Moore

GRIEF

by Matthew Dickman

When grief comes to you as a purple gorilla
you must count yourself lucky.
You must offer her what’s left
of your dinner, the book you were trying to finish
you must put aside,
and make her a place to sit at the foot of your bed,
her eyes moving from the clock
to the television and back again.
I am not afraid. She has been here before
and now I can recognize her gait
as she approaches the house.
Some nights, when I know she’s coming,

I unlock the door, lie down on my back,
and count her steps
from the street to the porch.
Tonight she brings a pencil and a ream of paper,
tells me to write down…

FULL TEXT HERE

latest collection: Wonderland (Norton)

 

 

HANDBAG

by Ruth Fainlight

My mother’s old leather handbag,
crowded with letters she carried
all through the war. The smell
of my mother’s handbag: mints
and liptsick and Coty powder.
The look of those letters, softened…

 

FULL TEXT w/audio HERE

latest collection: New & Collected Poems (Bloodaxe)

Baby Writes Poems: “Chick-links” #2

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421 Atlanta, Bloodaxe Books, Carol Dorf, chicklinks, Earth Science, Emma Bolden, Finishing Line Press, Jessy Randall, Maura Dooley, medi(t)ations, Noctuary Press, poetry picks, Sarah Green, small press poetry, The Silvering, Theory Headed Dragon, There Was An Old Woman, Unicorn Press, women poets

All you poetry-loving ladies, here are today’s recommended collections from your sister writers.  Enjoy!

EARTH SCIENCE by Sarah Green (421 Atlanta, Mar 2016)

[Click titles for purchase links, author names for bios.]

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN by Jessy Randall (Unicorn Press, Dec 2015)

THEORY HEADED DRAGON by Carol Dorf (Finishing Line, Jan 2016)

THE SILVERING by Maura Dooley (Bloodaxe, Mar 2016)

 

medi(t)ations by Emma Bolden (Noctuary Press, Mar 2016)

Poems with Presence: A Brief Note on the Late Elizabeth Bartlett

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Bloodaxe Books, British Women's Poetry, damaged Britian, Elizabeth Bartlett, Foremother Friday, poems with presence, Surgery, The Visitors, Two Women Dancing, women's poetry, Women's Poetry List-Serv

British poet, Elizabeth Bartlett, passed away in 2008 at the age of 84. Her first collection appeared when she was well into her 50’s and drew high praise for her skill in evoking the lives and faces of the ordinary people she ran across in her work with the National Health Services.  Critic Adam Thorpe, described her as “a kind of weird cross between Anne Sexton and Philip Larkin,” and editor Peter Forbes called her a chronicler of “damaged Britain”.

Each of her poems has a very physical presence that any student of poetry would do well to examine. “The Visitors,” written about a patient who suffered from hallucinations, is perhaps one of her best examples.  Find both the text and a lovely sound file of the poet reading at The Poetry Archive.

Listen to it several times and then skip on over to the Poetry Book Society (UK) and read her more tender “Surgery,” which with its deep vein of emotion opens Bartlett’s work up to even those that would snub poetry.

If you do not already own one of her collections, I suggest you start with Two Women Dancing (Bloodaxe), which is perhaps my favorite sampling, as it touches on broader issues as well as her own motherhood and marriage.

*If you’d like to explore more great women’s poetry, visit the Women’s Poetry List-Serv and search for “Foremother Friday”.