Poetry | Women's Voices For Change

Poetry Sunday:
“Before the Killing Frost,” by Diana Whitney

By Rebecca Foust

“Before the Killing Frost” is suffused with longing for the natural world—an almost physical grief at summer’s end—and the longing for a beloved.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Ink on Paper,” by Judy Halebsky

By Rebecca Foust

“Ink on Paper” seems to prioritize unarticulated feeling over rational thought and movement and communication over holding things tightly and trying to preserve their physical manifestations.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Getting Close,” by Victoria Redel

By Rebecca Foust

In the end, we are left not just with a sense of the speaker’s relationship with her mother, both before and after her death, but also with a sense of the history that made her mother the person she was.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday:
Three poems from ‘Blood Dazzler’ by Patricia Smith

By Amanda Moore

The poems in 'Blood Dazzler' present voices never heard on the news during the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, voices not usually part of such reports but which reflect the human side of tragedy.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “In Late Summer,” by Tess Taylor

By Rebecca Foust

“In Late Summer” opens with a vivid image that, for me, captures the essence of August in New England. Almost immediately, there is a sense of endings.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday:
“Scuppernong Grapes,” by Susan Williamson

By Rebecca Foust

I love poems like this one that help me retrieve memories of my childhood in Pennsylvania.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Hum,” by Cintia Santana

By Rebecca Foust

Narrative poems move time forward; lyric poems often try to capture the experience of a single moment in time, and reading “Hum”—especially aloud—presents the brief but unforgettable experience of getting buzzed by a hummingbird.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “The Bay,” by Gail Mazur

By Rebecca Foust

“The Bay” is about loss, but also about what is not lost; about death, but also new life; about stasis and stagnation, but also about the breeze picking up and new life quickening in stem, blossom, and vine.

Poetry

“Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado),”
by Monica Youn

By Rebecca Foust

To make a study of something is to contain it. Containment, both physical and figurative, is a prominent concern in Monica Youn’s “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado)."

Poetry

“A Story about the Heart,” “Betrayals,” and “Bed,”
by Andrea Hollander

By Rebecca Foust

Poetry speaks, in part, the language of place—exterior, interior, and especially the intersection where the outer and inner come together, that vital third place that is evoked, sometimes subtly, in these poems, which focus on my journey from the woods to the city and from marriage to divorce and beyond.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Crab Feed,” by Kathleen McClung

By Rebecca Foust

The poem captures the relaxed, meandering qualities of still-light-at-night community meals in high summer. Community, family, plenty, gratitude—we feel all this in the poem, and understand the way ordinary experiences can sometimes transcend themselves.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Dear S—” by Alexandra van de Kamp

By Susan Cohen

Like the best of trips, Alexandra van de Kamp’s “Dear S—” exposes us to both the strange we find alluring and the strange we find disturbing, and by the end we are looking at the world in a slightly different way.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Self-Portrait with Prodigal Father,” by Elizabeth Majerus

By Rebecca Foust

“Self-Portrait with Prodigal Father” does what good titles are meant to do—give an idea of the poem’s subject—but does it with a “hook,” something to grab attention and pique interest, to ensure that readers will go on to read the poem.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “At the Corner Store,” by Lesley Valdes

By Rebecca Foust

In this poem, we see a father’s strength and dignity lending a grace that, for the speaker, stands in counterpoint to the swift and terrible destruction of his disease.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Did My Father Work on Bombs?”
by Jacqueline Berger

By Rebecca Foust

My father was wounded and wonderful, maybe in equal measure. To his credit, he took an early retirement and became a teacher. The poem is my ongoing questioning of who my father was and, on another level, how the whole meaning and influence of family changes once parents are no longer alive.

Women's Voices For Change

Articles onPoetry

Poetry Sunday:
“Before the Killing Frost,” by Diana Whitney

Poetry Sunday: “Ink on Paper,” by Judy Halebsky

Poetry Sunday: “Getting Close,” by Victoria Redel

Poetry Sunday:
Three poems from ‘Blood Dazzler’ by Patricia Smith

Poetry Sunday: “In Late Summer,” by Tess Taylor

Poetry Sunday:
“Scuppernong Grapes,” by Susan Williamson

Poetry Sunday: “Hum,” by Cintia Santana

Poetry Sunday: “The Bay,” by Gail Mazur

“Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado),”
by Monica Youn

“A Story about the Heart,” “Betrayals,” and “Bed,”
by Andrea Hollander

Poetry Sunday: “Crab Feed,” by Kathleen McClung

Poetry Sunday: “Dear S—” by Alexandra van de Kamp

Poetry Sunday: “Self-Portrait with Prodigal Father,” by Elizabeth Majerus

Poetry Sunday: “At the Corner Store,” by Lesley Valdes

Poetry Sunday: “Did My Father Work on Bombs?”
by Jacqueline Berger

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