ISAAC —after Czeslaw Milosz’s poem Should Should Not A father should not lay his son upon an altar, should not listen to all he is told. He should not wander […]

CATHERINE GRAHAM FEATURES LOUIS MACNEICE Snow The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was Spawning snow and pink roses against it Soundlessly collateral and incompatible: World is suddener […]

Back to the Quarry This surface for long-legged spiders once absolved teen skin. Plunge into the limestone museum. Mingle with rusty machinery sunken by a triggered spring. Let sunfish nibble […]

from Sabbath Poems 2007, V Those who use the world assuming their knowledge is sufficient destroy the world. The forest is mangled for the sale of a few sticks, or […]

 KATE CAYLEY FEATURES WENDELL BERRY AND PHILIP LARKIN The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer I am done with apologies. If contrariness is my inheritance and destiny, so be it. If […]

  Attention And if repetition could itself be a form of attention, folding along the crease until the crease finds itself hollowing out the groove, as in marriage, studying the […]

I left this somewhat late! A quick look at blog posts I have written on four of the five shortlisted nominees for the Griffin Poetry Prize – Susan Musgrave, Ocean […]

Sunflower, August The mammoth is its own planet. Each day, for months, it grows inches, thickens, its pedicel like obese bamboo, leaves plattering out, shading tomatoes and peas, quashing the […]

Song 352 When you need to warm yourself, When you are hungry to share a word, When you crave a bread crumb, Don’t go to the tall trees — You’ll […]

Tears – died on August 3, 2016. Once we stopped at a Vons to pick up flowers and pinwheels on our way to the graveyard. It had been a year […]