2 Views on the Oyster (#2sdayPoems)

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#2sDayPoems, Anne Sexton, British Women's Poetry, ellen bass, Food Poems, Like a Beggar, Oysters, Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

The phenomenal poets Anne Sexton & Ellen Bass bring two different views on the much-loved, summer favorite:

OYSTERS

by Anne Sexton

Oysters we ate,
sweet blue babies,
twelve eyes looked up at me,
running with lemon and Tabasco.
I was afraid to eat this father-food
and Father laughed and
drank down his martini,
clear as tears.
It was a soft medicine
that came from the sea into my mouth,
moist and plump.
I swallowed.
It went down like a large pudding.
Then I ate one o’clock and two o’clock.
Then I laughed and then we laughed
and let me take note –
there was a…

FULL TEXT HERE

from Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

 

REINCARNATION

by Ellen Bass

Who would believe in reincarnation
if she thought she would return as
an oyster? Eagles and wolves
are popular. Even domesticated cats
have their appeal. It’s not terribly distressing
to imagine being Missy, nibbling
kibble and lounging on the windowsill.
But I doubt the toothsome oyster has ever
been the totem of any shaman
fanning the Motherpeace Tarot
or smudging with sage.
Yet perhaps we could do worse
than aspire to be a plump bivalve. Humbly,
the oyster persists in….

 

FULL TEXT HERE (w/ audio)
latest collection: Like a Beggar

#NationalPoetryMonth’16 Round-up (Day 1)

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#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, 30dpc, Ada Limon, Adele Kenny, artspeak, Beth May, ellen bass, Emi Mahmoud, Found Poetry Review, hatbooks, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, June Jordan, Lagan Press, Margaret Rozga, Mariah Wilson, Mary Carroll Hackett, Mount Pleasant Poetry Project, mslexia, NotaLiteraryJournal, NPM16, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, Rita Quillen, Scholastic, Shel Silverstein, Sylvia Plath, Ted Kooser, Vivian Shipley, women poets

I am so excited to welcome you to DAY ONE of this year’s National Poetry Month! The number of hashtags AND prompters seems to have doubled this year.  A  good sign, I think. Once again, BoneSpark will be your source for a daily round-up of the best prompts, poems and news from your favorite hashtags #NaPoWriMo/#NPM16/#NaPoMo /#NationalPoetryMonth/#poemaday.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Lune challenge”
NotaLiteraryJournal’s “Word Salad prompt”
Imaginary Garden’s “April is for Fools & Poets prompt”
Mary Carroll-Hackett’s “Poetry and Power”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Foolish Poems prompt”
Adele Kenny’s “Remembrance w/ Neruda prompt”
Found Poetry’s “Generative Activities w/ Patrick Williams”
HATBOOK’s “#NoticePoem prompt”
30dpc’s “New Day, New Dawn prompt”
ARTSPEAK’s “Pissaro Artist’s Garden prompt”
Mslexia/Poetry School’s “Never in a love poem prompt”
Mariah Wilson’s “Water slide w/ instructions prompt”
Lagan Press’ “Addressing Death prompt”
Mt. Pleasant Poetry Project “10 Ten Words in voice of tree, etc. prompts”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Ellen Bass “Relax”
June Jordan “These Poems”
Margaret Rozga “In the Garden”
Rita Quillen “What the Creek Says”
Emi Mahmoud “Mama” (spoken word)
Beth May “Three Poems about Job Interviews”
Vivian Shipley “Blueprints”
Ada Limon “Service”

Miscellaneous
Interview with poet Ted Kooser interview at Writer’s Almanac
Free Shel Sliverstein Shel-ebration Poetry Workshop Download
Fine-tuning metaphor with Ted Kooser (Scholastic Young Poets guide)
Scholastic’s Master Class with Sylvia Plath (pdf)

 

**Poets, if you would like to be featured in 2sDay Poems, have your collection reviewed, guest post in the Poetry Lab or blog on any of the Thoughts on Poetry topics, including Foremother Friday or Small Press Interviews, drop me a line at  bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 8)

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#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, A Piece of the Pie, a.e. stallings, Adrian Blevins, Apparatus Magazine, artspeak, doireann ni ghriofa, ellen bass, joel dias-porter, Kris bigalk, lorine niedecker, mary ruefle, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, peter coghill, pink ink press, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry and film, poetry prompts, Robert Hass, the doubling of self, the language inside, Wild Violet, women poets

Your one-stop source for the best of the prompts, poems and news from DAY EIGHT of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

ARTSPEAK #: “Renoir’s Head of a Dog“
Mslexia “Coffee Shop First Lines”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Dare Poems”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Can’t Live Without You poems”
30dpc “Syntactic Ambiguity”
Wild Violet “G is for Ghazal”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Jumping Into Form–Animal Haiku”
The Language Inside’s “News Mine”
Pink Ink Press’ “The Sea Speaks”
NaPoWriMo’s “Palinodes”
Kris Bigalk’s “Dream prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Robert Hass| “The Problem of Describing Color”
Mary Ruefle| “The Hand”
Joel Dias-Porter| “Turning the Tables”
Doireann Ní Ghríofa| “The Headless Woman”
Peter Coghill| “Piet Mondrian and the Fixed Point Theorem”
Ellen Bass| “Ode to the Pork Chop”
Adrian Blevins| “Watching the News Hour”

Miscellaneous

Poetry and Film (at The Pig’s Wings blog)
The Doubling of Self: An Interview w/ Richard Siken
A.E. Stallings: Writing Poetry (Messenger Lecture)
Lorine Niedecker and the Obstinacy of the Particular