Friday, January 31, 2014

I Wish I'd Written This

My Rainbow Race
By Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

One blue sky above us, one ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round, who could ask for more?
And because I love you I'll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race, it's too soon to die

Some folks want to be like an ostrich
Bury their heads in the sand
Some hope that plastic dreams
Can unclench all those greedy hands

Some hope to take the easy way
Poisons, bombs, they think we need 'em
Don't you know you can't kill all the unbelievers?
There's no shortcut to freedom

One blue sky above us, one ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round, who could ask for more?
And because I love you I'll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race, it's too soon to die

Go tell, go tell all the little children
Tell all the mothers and fathers too
Now's our last chance to learn to share
What's been given to me and you

One blue sky above us, one ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round, who could ask for more?
And because I love you I'll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race, it's too soon to die

One blue sky above us, one ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round, who could ask for more?





I'm sure you're all well aware that singer and activist Pete Seeger died a few days ago, aged 94. He left us more famous songs than this one — We Shall Overcome, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Little Boxes, my favourite Guantanamera, and many more — but he himself wrote only a few of them, though he adapted the others and made them his own.  What stirring songs they all were! He never gave up trying to inspire us by his songs to make the world a better place.

Some songs are such great poetry that the lyrics can stand alone. Songs by Dylan and Cohen spring to mind. Most of Pete Seeger's songs are inseparable from the music, relying on repetitions which are wonderful when sung but could be a tad boring as words on a page. In My Rainbow Race, which he wrote in 1971, the words are softer and the alternating of verse and chorus more conventional, so it works without the music too. It's a peace song of course, and I think it can work as an environmental song as well. I like the focus on what is right with our world, rather than emphasising what is wrong — though that is not shirked.

But a song deserves its music; to hear it, go to this YouTube link.

Pete Seeger's story is well known, I believe. If you would like full details, the link on his name, above, takes you to the Wikipedia article. And there's another take on it in Bruce Springsteen's speech at Seeger's 90th birthday celebration.

At 91 he was still actively supporting Amnesty. At 92 he was participating in Occupy Wall Street. He always supported such causes not only with his presence but also his music. He believed that was what his music was for — and I believe his music will live. He seems to have had a great capacity for joy, and in his old age he delighted in teaching schoolchildren in his neighbourhood about both singing and life. A man of idealism and true simplicity, he will be — in the words of a Bob Dylan song which Seeger himself recorded in 2011 — 'forever young'.



Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Hunger



“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”                                                                                                  ― Mother Teresa


Today's Motif: Hunger 

What do you yearn for?  Write from another perspective than your own if you wish, but m
ake us feel the hunger.



“I seek to be moved, my imagination reborn.
  Let me feast on poems that feed my hunger.” 
                                                                                             ― Susie Clevenger


"I hunger for your sleek laugh, 

your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond. 

                                                                                          ― Pablo Neruda

         “There are people in the world so hungry, 
            that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
                                                                                         ― Mahatma Gandhi



Please:
  1. Post a hunger poem on your site and then link it here.
  2. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
  3. Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.

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Monday, January 27, 2014

LIFE OF A POET - LOREDANA DONOVAN

Kids, hold onto your hats as this week we are zooming cross-country to the Big Apple, to visit with the poet, photographer and artist, Loredana Donovan, who blogs at Blogging Away. We are in for an interesting visit, with this busy poet, so let's not waste a moment.




P.U.: Loredana, it's so nice to be sitting down with you at last. How about giving us a snapshot of the Life of the Poet At Home?


Sunday, January 26, 2014

Poetry Pantry #186


       
Tikal, post classical Guatemala

Tikal, pre classical Guatemala

Tulum coastal site

Uxmal

Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this Sunday.  We had a great Poetry Pantry last week, and I hope this week we have the same kind of activity.  It is always enjoyable for me to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same.  Admittedly, I personally appreciate those with whom there is a feeling of reciprocity, which makes for a feeling of community.

This is the second week I am featuring photos taken by Scott Hastie.  About the photos Scott says, "Essentially these are all of the the principal sites of the Mayan civilisation in the Yucatan Peninsula, an area that covers Mexico, Guatemala (really the cradle of that civilisation..) and Honduras - some hard core travelling required here - with up to five hour trek in the jungle at Tikal for example to see all these amazing places. Each picture file name is a caption which will allow readers to follow up any interest they have and gain more info about each temple complex."     Thanks, Scott.  Some spectacular views.  And it was nice to see you in one as well!

Be sure to visit Sherry Blue Sky here tomorrow.  See whose interview she will share tomorrow.   Here's a hint...  It is someone who always posts in Poetry Pantry & has shared with us some wonderful NYC photos!  Smiles.

Glad to see the great turnout  for  the first Mid-Week Motif last Wednesday.  We hope to see you again this coming week for another challenging prompt by Susan Chast!

And on Friday, remember to see who Rosemary Nissen-Wade is featuring on her I Wish I Had Written This!

I issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have special photos that you would like me to feature some week, let me know what kind of photos you have.  There are participants here from many different cities, many different countries.  I think it is great fun to see different areas featured. I am especially interested in scenic views of your area or an area you have visited.  Send inquiries first to dixibear@aol.com letting me know what you have.  I am interested in city or country views - in your home area or places you have traveled.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday (after the new year) Susan Chast posts a new "Mid-Week Motif" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!

Friday, January 24, 2014

I Wish I'd Written This

Khaleesi
By Tonya Ingram and Venessa Marco

This one is best heard at this link  — and you can read the searing words there too. Quick, do it now! (Then come back here.)





I am lying. I don't wish I personally had written it; I am thankful not to have had the experiences that gave rise to it. Then again, no-one is an island, as the poet John Donne reminded us. If such things are possible for others, they could happen to me. I have escaped only by circumstance. I am not free unless all are free.


However I am exultant that the poem has been written and performed by these two poets, and that it will be shared with the world on YouTube for a long time to come. And, in contradiction to what I just said, these young women are asserting their own freedom and providing an inspiring example to others. I could certainly wish for such poetic power!


Though it's strong stuff indeed, it's no mere rant. The use of language makes it poetry. Definitions of poetry are always vague and unsatisfying, because the essence of poetry can't be pinned down — but heightened language is surely one criterion, and it is present here.


The poem is part of contemporary culture in more ways than one. It's recorded at a poetry slam, it's up on YouTube, and I assume the title refers to the powerful dragon queen character in the Game of Thrones TV series based on George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books — a character who likes to rescue the downtrodden, particularly abused women.


(And I apologise that you may already have come across this video, as it's going all over facebook. But I always find there are people who first become aware of the poets I profile by reading this column, so I believe it's worth doing.)


Huffington Post tells us that:


Tonya Ingram is a Junior at New York University, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Social Justice Education Through the Arts. In 2011 she placed first in the Knicks Poetry Slam and won a $10,000 scholarship. She is also a member of the 2011 Urban Word NYC poetry slam team that placed second in the nation at the Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Festival in San Francisco, Calif.


You can read a short interview with her here, and hear her give another reading. The best way to find more of her poetry is to Google it or go straight to YouTube, as she has been doing a lot of performing.


The same applies to finding Venessa Marco's poetry. Her facebook page lists her as 'writer, painter, poet' and goes on to say:


Venessa Marco is an African Caribbean writer by way of Cuba and Puerto Rico. She has recently moved from Los Angeles, California to Harlem, New York. Marco is currently pursuing her PhD in English. She was a member of the 2012 Da Poetry Lounge in Hollywood, California slam team and a member of the 2013 Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which placed 3rd in the nation.


Tonya Ingram also has a facebook page. She is on twitter as @TonyaSIngram and Venessa Marco is there as @marco_venessa 

I think they are going to be sources of exciting, passionate poetry far into the future!



Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Mirror

“The time will come when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome.” 
― Derek WalcottSea Grapes


Today’s motif: Mirror

What do you see when you look in a mirror?  What is the best mirror you ever looked in? Do you have a mirror story that needs a poem?

I am inspired today by Agha Shahid Ali and Sylvia Plath:


I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror
     By dark the world is once again intact,
     Or so the mirrors, wiped clean, try to reason. . .
                                                 --James Merrill

This dream of water--what does it harbor?
I see Argentina and Paraguay
under a curfew of glass, their colors
breaking, like oil. The night in Uruguay

is black salt. I'm driving toward Utah,
keeping the entire hemisphere in view--
Colombia vermilion, Brazil blue tar,
some countries wiped clean of color: Peru …

- See the rest at 
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16090#sthash.05S3zAB8.dpuf



Mirror
by Sylvia Plath (from The Collected Poems)

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike ...

See the rest at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/172450-i-am-silver-and-exact-i-have-no-preconceptions-whatever







Please:
  1. Post your mirror poem on your site, and then link it here.
  2. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
  3. Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.



Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Auto-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

Monday, January 20, 2014

LIFE OF A POET - SUMANA ROY

I have a lovely treat for you today, kids: a visit to Sumana Roy, who writes so beautifully at Vision. Sumana lives in West Bengal, on the India-Bangladesh border, so once again we are zooming the skies and landing in a wonderfully exotic locale. Our hostess is waiting for us on her garden terrace and has prepared a lovely tray of aromatic tea for us, with the gracious hospitality the people of India are so noted for.



P.U.: Sumana, I am so happy to meet you! I couldnt find many clues about you on your site. Would you like to give us a snapshot of this poet's life?


Me, at home

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Poetry Pantry #185


   
Chitchen Itza

Chitchen Itza detail

Mayan mask made of Jade

Palenque, Southern Mexico

Stelae at Quirijua, Honduras



Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this third Sunday in January.  We had a great Poetry Pantry last week, and I hope this week we have the same kind of ambience.  It is always enjoyable for me to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same.  Admittedly, I personally appreciate those with whom there is a feeling of reciprocity, which makes for a feeling of community.

This week and next week I am featuring some photos taken by Scott Hastie.  About the photos Scott says, "Essentially these are all of the the principal sites of the Mayan civilisation in the Yucatan Peninsula, an area that covers Mexico, Guatemala (really the cradle of that civilisation..) and Honduras - some hard core travelling required here - with up to five hour trek in the jungle at Tikal for example to see all these amazing places. Each picture file name is a caption which will allow readers to follow up any interest they have and gain more info about each temple complex."     Thanks, Scott.  Your photos are beautiful!

Be sure to visit Poets United to see what Sherry Blue Sky has planned for tomorrow.  

Glad to see good turnout  for  the new Mid-Week Motif prompts here!.  We hope to see you again this coming week for another challenging prompt by Susan Chast on Wednesday!

And on Friday, remember to see who Rosemary Nissen-Wade is featuring on her I Wish I Had Written This!

I issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have special photos that you would like me to feature some week, let me know what kind of photos you have.  There are participants here from many different cities, many different countries.  I think it is great fun to see different areas featured. I am especially interested in scenic views of your area or an area you have visited.  Send inquiries first to dixibear@aol.com letting me know what you have.  I am interested in city or country views - in your home area or places you have traveled.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday (after the new year) Susan Chast posts a new "Mid-Week Motif" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Friday, January 17, 2014

I Wish I'd Written This

Writers are Lovers

of mystery
as you can see
from the words of a poet.
Take, for instance, Robert Frost,
who in early adulthood stepped away
from poetry attempting to appease his family
with completion of higher academics, brief stints
in teaching, and reporting news slanted with a poetic view--

he once went on to describe a flagpole in front of the post office
as beauty with a majestic eagle who, in a mighty gust of wind,  
perched atop a pole by a stately white building,
adorned the heavens until a dreadful hunter
came along and shot it dead, that fool,
when merely the wind
knocked it down--

does a reporter write like that? No, only poets such as Robert Frost,
whose steps away from writing only led him back to feather pen,
can sustain wedding nights where hasty visitors knock
at cabin doors, when all around the deserted woods
no other light shines, and one is left wondering
if perhaps the stranger was the bride's true
love left with missing clues.

By Laurie Kolp


(I had to put the poet's name last this time, instead of directly under the title of the poem, as the title leads straight into the poem, doing double duty as a first line.)

I first encountered Laurie Kolp at Poetic Asides some years ago when we were both participating in a 'poem a day' challenge there, and we have been encountering each other there and at other places online ever since. 

She may already be known to you too as an active online poet — and one of those who spends a lot of time enabling other people's poetic development. For instance, she writes many of the 'Pretzels and Bullfights' posts at the dVerse ~ Poets Pub community, where her description as one of the team says:

Laurie Kolp is an award-winning poet who has been published worldwide. She lives in Southeast Texas with the beach and Big Thicket at her fingertips (opposite hands, of course). She graduated from Texas A&M University and taught school for twelve years until she became a SAHM of her three children and husband. Laurie likes writing not only poetry, but creative nonfiction and fiction as well. Her two dogs, Snowy and Jake, are her sounding boards and cheerleaders. You can find her at Bird’s-Eye Gemini and Laurie Kolp Poetry. twitter: @KolpLaurie


She is also one of several hosts of Poetry Jam, a blog of weekly prompts for poets, and she is Vice President of Texas Gulf Coast Writers. (How does she find the time?)

She participates in Poets United too. 'Laurie Kolp Poetry' (then called  'Conversations with Laurie') was featured as Blog of the Week in May 2011, and she was the subject of one of Sherry's wonderful 'Life of a Poet' interviews in March 2012.

I just love her tale, above, of poor Robert Frost trying to get away from poetry and be normal to please his family, and failing utterly. (And aren't we glad of that!)

It's not difficult to find more of her work. Her two blogs are both poetry blogs, reflecting, she tells us, different aspects of herself. She has been widely published in literary magazines etc., and is included in the anthology Poetic Bloomings: the first year, edited by Marie Elena Good and Walt Wojtanik and in pay attention: a river of stones, ed. Fiona Robyn and Kaspalita.

Her complete poetry collection (to date), to be released in March 2014, is Upon the Blue Couch from Winter Goose Publishing. 



Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).



Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Equality


“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial National Memorial



A MOTIF is an important and usually repeating idea or theme in a work of art, a feature 
in a decoration or design <a flower motif in wallpaper>, and similar ideas in music and science.


Today’s Motif:  Equality

Write a narrative poem relating an experience that illustrates equality or inequality.  Some of us will show an event ruled by hatred and/or racial oppression ~ a story we have been reluctant to tell.  It may be as "small" as wishing we said a joke "isn't funny" to as large as turning a country around. Others may recall or imagine an event ruled by such equality that it is almost invisible. Feel free to take an historical subject if you wish. 

Today, January 15th, is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, MLK worked in the USA for a non-violent solution to the isolation and oppression of Black citizens.  His goal was huge: to heal the racial divide in the USA by guaranteeing to all citizens equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In the comments below, please say what inspires you when you think about equal rights ~ a song, poem, story, artwork, event or person?  Here's one of my inspirations, a poem by Countee Cullen:
Locked arm in arm they cross the way
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day
The sable pride of night.

From lowered blinds the dark folk stare
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.

Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder. 

And another, the first song about equal rights I ever heard:





Please:
1.     Post your narrative poem on your site and then link it here.
2.     Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
3.     Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.


Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Auto-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

Monday, January 13, 2014

LIFE OF A POET - ANAND S. UNNI

Kids, fly away with me! You know how much this armchair traveler loves exploring other places, other lives. So this week we are going to visit Anand Unni, in Kerala, India. This is, Anand tells us, the southernmost tip of India. Anand, who is still a student,  writes wonderfully at  Chimes of a Forgotten Melody. He lives in a place of stunning beauty and tranquility. Hop aboard my magic carpet! We are going to have the best time!


P.U.:  Anand, so nice to be visiting with you! Would you like to give us a little snapshot of your life in India? Where you live, your family, what fills your days? Anything to give us a sense of the poet behind the poetry?

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Poetry Pantry #184


       
Victoria, B.C. Parliament Buildings at the Holidays

Victoria, B.C. Decorated Christmas Tree


A walk in the woods in Sooke,
30 minutes outside Victoria



The Sooke Coastline 
Sooke is a large peninsula surrounded by
the Sooke Basin and the open waters of the
Pacific Ocean and the Juan de Fuca Strait

A Quiet Cove


Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this second Sunday in January.  We had a great Poetry Pantry last week, and I hope this week we have the same kind of ambience.  It is always enjoyable for me to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same.  Admittedly, I personally appreciate those with whom there is a feeling of reciprocity, which makes for a feeling of community.

This week I am featuring some photos taken by Sherry Blue Sky, when she was in Victoria, British Columbia, for the holidays.  Lovely photos of a most beautiful area!

Be sure to visit the interview Sherry Blue Sky has planned for tomorrow.  It is an interview of one of our regular Poetry Pantry participants that we think you will really enjoy!

Glad to see the great turnout  for  the first Mid-Week Motif last Wednesday.  We hope to see you again this coming week for another challenging prompt by Susan Chast!

And on Friday, remember to see who Rosemary Nissen-Wade is featuring on her I Wish I Had Written This!

I issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have special photos that you would like me to feature some week, let me know what kind of photos you have.  There are participants here from many different cities, many different countries.  I think it is great fun to see different areas featured. I am especially interested in scenic views of your area or an area you have visited.  Send inquiries first to dixibear@aol.com letting me know what you have.  I am interested in city or country views - in your home area or places you have traveled.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday (after the new year) Susan Chast posts a new "Mid-Week Motif" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!

Friday, January 10, 2014

I Wish I'd Written This

Poem for John
By Alison Croggon

You ask for a poem
and I say
I have no poem

here the sky
which embraces both of us
in this single world
is blue
and I read
that birds sing
between the bombs
in Iraq

no balance
no consolation
and no answer
as the angel of history
turns its vengeful face
towards us all

you are right

we need poems
as we need bread
we hunger for that blue
human milk
to nourish our largeness
to minister our pain
and our love

here is your poem


(From Ash, Cusp Books, LA 2006. © Alison Croggon)

Both poem and photograph are copyright, and are used with permission.



I first met Alison Croggon when she was a young poet in Melbourne in the early eighties, and already one of Australia's most beautiful lyric poets. She had worked as a journalist, and I remember thinking what an asset that must be to a poet — all that training in cutting out unnecessary words.

Her first book of poetry, This is the Stone, won two of Australia's most prestigious poetry prizes, the Anne Elder Award (for a first book of poetry) and the Dame Mary Gilmore Prize. She is also a successful playwright, fantasy novelist and librettist. She continued with the journalism, well-known as a theatre critic writing for literary publications and more recently in her blog, Theatre Notes.


Her website is the best place to find out more about Alison, with links to her wonderful fantasy series, her 'biography that explains everything', other poems, and lots more. Don't forget to look for further links from these links. You can find her books at her Amazon page.


I admire all her poetry,  which does uniquely beautiful things with language. This particular piece appeals to me in its simple directness and its restraint — and of course for what it says in its conclusion.




Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

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