Poet’s Corner: ‘in March, before we leave’
in March, before we leave
By Susan Puciul
1.
winter night in the yard
the moon’s room
her rise welling up through
black lace of oak and beech
seize of crystal
on forest ground
mirrors the stern shine
of starry eyes above
same as knew...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Things to Come’
Things to Come
By Cecily Bryant
Day dawns under sullen shelf clouds
A promise of a cold rain
A day for making soups and calling friends
I am grateful for the colors of carrots and savory greens
I am warmed...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Snowdrift’
Snowdrift
By Fan S. Ogilvie
Look at a snowdrift of spring Kousa
dogwood blossoms backed by a writer’s
shed on top of which turns a brass and
gold weathervane—the horse/fish warrior
hippocampus. It’s the writer’s story, one
never told just gestured...
Poet’s Corner: Poem by Michael Oliveira
By Michael Oliveira
the book of your life
would you skip to the last page
to see how it ends?
Michael Oliveira has lived and worked on Martha’s Vineyard for decades. He currently lives in East Falmouth.
Poets with...
Poet’s Corner: ‘The Drip’
The Drip
By Georgia Morris
For the third time in two months
water breaks through the ceiling slats
of the downstairs bathroom fan
and you are, this time, happily
making green tea and honey toast
to the tap, tap, tapping that...
Poet’s Corner: Requiem for a Right Whale
Requiem for a Right Whale
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Beloved cetacean
hogtied with fishing line
before washing up
on the shore
not so many yards
from our
fossil-fueled road
you must have rolled
and thrashed
and if we were looking
we would have seen
the planet's grid of...
Poet’s Corner: ‘January Gems’
January Gems
By Ellie Bates
Night
black velvet sky
wears
crescent pearl
necklace
Morning
flakes
of chalcedony
veils
dress the fields
of fallen snow
Ellie Bates lives year-round in Edgartown, and is a member of the MV Poets’ Collective and the Cleaveland House Poets. Her recent chapbook,“Seasonal...
Poet’s Corner: ‘On Aging and the Loss of One’s Marbles’
On Aging and the Loss of One’s Marbles
By Ellen Martin Story
Sad, to think I’m losing marbles these days.
Used to lose a lot when I was a kid
playing on the sidewalk.
Could never finger-flick other marbles
out...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Forgetting to Remember’
Forgetting to Remember
By Peter Ledermann
Speak not casually ever
As there is no drop of rain
that is insignificant
Nor any look that we give to one
another
Impermanent
Look to the passage of every moment as precious as
The splitting of...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Explaining the world to a 14-year-old’
Explaining the world to a 14-year-old
By Fan S. Ogilvie
We are walking outside to fill bird feeders —
a perfect time to talk about Hamas
and the Israeli bombing of Gaza —
events he knows little or nothing...
Poet’s Corner: ‘The Beach at Lambert’s Cove’
The Beach at Lambert’s Cove
By Leroy Hazelton
I believed
In all stars spinning
From the Mouth
And that sea clams,
Loons and strangers wing to paradise,
While your hand,
Intruding on a pope’s disguise,
Traced to a deeper skull
A sea gull’s rowdy...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Opening the Cabin’
Opening the Cabin
By Warren Woessner
We drag our bags to the side door
and hunt for things that don’t work —
big things like the heat and hot water
and little things like burned-out bulbs.
I am putting up...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Vineyard Reality’
Vineyard Reality
By Joan Noëldechen
Every day
Appearing in the sand
Or on the trail
Seemed so surreal
I could not tell
If it was all a dream
Or something constantly changing.
I came home,
But I was not living
In the world.
Joan Noëldechen is...
Poet’s Corner: ‘The Gift’
The Gift
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Though we lean into the pull
of the season
it's hard to say all is well
when we know
with inner sense
some of the worst waits
behind closed doors
within the human heart
yet the dwindling day
promises the...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Crash Course’
Crash Course
By Liz Posen
When I realized my daughter
was going to college
really leaving
not like an extended sleepover
I worried to near panic
that I had not given her
essential life lessons
and embarked on a crash course.
“Was she aware...
Poet’s Corner: ‘The Fall of Day’
The Fall of Day
By Liz Splittgerber
The fall of day
The close of light
The dawn of dark
The rise of night
Autumn embers
Reach black bird's flight
Settled smoke
Wreaths leaf's late blight
Last to bloom
First to blush
Mighty spun web
Failing light's hush
Deeper...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Sometimes’
Sometimes
By Warren Woessner
I sit in my car
and can’t decide where to go.
What will be there
at the there I choose?
Do I look for the loon
or hunt the hawk?
Or just sit here
until the hawk leaves its...
Poet’s Corner: Two Haikus about Daylight Savings Time
Time to set the clocks
back — and the Samaritans
hotline on speed dial.
—Michael Oliveira and Donald Nitchie
..setting the clock back
..a welcome to the darkness
..as if i need help
—Michael Oliveira
Michael Oliveira has lived and worked on...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Gardener’
Gardener
By Don McLagan (for Laura D. Roosevelt)
Carved from the rest of all earth,
staked, planted, tended, defended,
this chosen piece of turf is your garden
and you are its god. Its sod is mindless
of your school, your...
Poet’s Corner: Nancy Slonim Aronie
By Nancy Slonim Aronie
In my rearview mirror I see
a gray
oh it’s black
no it’s silver
I can’t always tell
because of the light
And the time of day
when did cars lose their joy
the baby blue of the ’54...