poetry – Page 9 – Sarah Marie Wells

While flying in to Chicago this morning, I was thinking about Horton Hears a Who, and how all of the Whos down in Whoville were shouting all in unison, “We are here! We are here! We are here!” so that their voices could be heard by the mean, old kangaroo, but their atmosphere wouldn’t letContinueContinue reading

Good News!

I just got an email from the editor of The New Formalist, and they are going to publish one of my poems! Now, three people think I’m awesome! 😉 I am very excited about this one, too, because it is a formal poem I first wrote as an undergraduate. I’ve done some revision to it,ContinueContinue reading “Good News!”

You, Me, and the Jellies

So, I keep revising this stupid poem (don’t tell Lydia I said “stupid”) in hopes that I’ll actually like it someday, and I think maybe it’s just doomed to end up in the burn pile. It has been called “Airlie Beach, Valentine’s Day, 2001”, and then it was “Resurfacing”, and now it is “You, Me,ContinueContinue reading “You, Me, and the Jellies”

The Swale

Roving feet get suctioned in the swale.Mud leaches between laces and leatherbefore you see the depression coming.The valley looked drier, but spring rainand winter melt had no time to evaporateor seep deeper into the earth, harmless.This land rises up in such a way that dipsare unpredictable. Perhaps shallow cavitieswill always be damp, hollows I dareContinueContinue reading “The Swale”

Cover of Book! Woo!

Here’s the “mock up” of the cover for my chapbook. I like it, except for the title font, which is just a tad overly italicized, I think. I may ask for something a bit more… flowy? “Advance orders” are being taken, and the thing about advance orders is that it determines their press run, andContinueContinue reading “Cover of Book! Woo!”

Pruning Burning Bushes – in Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression

Issue 2.4 of Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression came today in the mail, and in it, my first published poem. Look at me, I’m a poet. Ah ah ah.Pruning Burning BushesI am over-pruning burning bushesthat border my front porch on Morgan,cutting back two-thirds of growthto trigger recovery from the trunk up.Horticulturalists wince as I sawthroughContinueContinue reading “Pruning Burning Bushes – in Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression”

Hymn of Skin

Hymn of Skin*POOF!*

Snow in Auburn

Snow in Auburn More than once I have heardyour frosty winter promise whispered,the fire crackle of your laughter,felt your sorrow falling with the snapof heavy branches in the woods.Eternity, you roar so loudit wakes me from my sleep; I standby the slamming screen door and stare,wind sudden, deliberate, constant,each gust stirring the empty field.Though annualsContinueContinue reading “Snow in Auburn”

Defenseless

DefenselessPut on the full armor of God…You loosened your belt,let truth slide to the floor.You slipped off your sweater,threw it in the corner.Your feet were bare and prone to slip,legs uneasy, head dizzy…What if you’d been wearing a helmet?What if you had had a swordto wave at that demon who luredyou toward the window,who promisedContinueContinue reading “Defenseless”

Consider the Sparrows

Consider the SparrowsSo many come, Dad hides behind a blindwith birdshot and a rifle in the grain field.They scatter, land, scatter, land. I hear themchirping through the boom, watch their flightripple like cotton sheets lifted in the wind.A sparrow’s egg on concrete – the yolkseeping through the fracture – makes me stopto look from brokenContinueContinue reading “Consider the Sparrows”