Tag Archives: relationships

Metaphors for God: Tina Lindsay’s “My Mother Is…”

      Comments Off on Metaphors for God: Tina Lindsay’s “My Mother Is…”

Tina Lindsay’s “My Mother Is…” Post 11/31 in my A Mother Here reading series. (Click/tap here to read the poem.) Poem: http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/11-Lindsay_My-Mother-Is.mp3 (Direct link to audio file.) Commentary: http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/11-Comment-on-Lindsay_My-Mother-Is.mp3 (Direct link to audio file.)

“I Hear Her Everywhere”: Rachel Hunt Steenblik’s “I Dreamed I Wrote Five Poems”

      Comments Off on “I Hear Her Everywhere”: Rachel Hunt Steenblik’s “I Dreamed I Wrote Five Poems”

Rachel Hunt Steenblik’s “I Dreamed I Wrote Five Poems” Post 6/31 in my A Mother Here reading series. (Click/tap here to read the poem.) Poem: http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/6-Steenblik_I-Dreamed-I-Wrote-Five-Poems.mp3 (Direct link to audio file.) Commentary: http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/6-Comment-on-Steenblik_I-Dreamed-I-Wrote-Five-Poems.mp3 (Direct link to audio file.) (Follow this link for an essay Steenblik wrote that explores some of the same ideas I explore in my commentary.)

#MormonPoetrySlam, Day 9 (2014): Neil Aitken reads
“After Eden” by Marilyn Nielson

"Adam & Eve" from Sue Hasker on Flickr

Here’s a link to the poem if you’d like to follow along as Neil reads. Read more about the Mormon Poetry Slam here and see the posting schedule here. Vote for your favorite performance here (the link will go live once all the entries have been posted). Use #MormonPoetrySlam if you post about this in your social media circles.

Mormon Poetry Slam, Day 8: Eric W Jepson Reads
“Close” by Amber Watson

      Comments Off on Mormon Poetry Slam, Day 8: Eric W Jepson Reads
“Close” by Amber Watson
"Cut" from Jo Andre Johansen on Flickr

Read more about the Mormon Poetry Slam here and see the posting schedule here. Vote for your favorite performance here (the link will go live once all the entries have been posted). Use #MormonPoetrySlam if you post about this in your social media circles.

Listening Closely to James Goldberg’s “In the Beginning”

(Cross-posted here.) If you’d like to comment on the post, follow that link. Poet Highlight: James Goldberg, “In the Beginning”* James Goldberg’s poem “In the Beginning” exults in orality. It begins, “When he was young, / they read the books / out loud.” But the poet doesn’t revel simply by stating that his experience with language is grounded in the… Read more »

On Language and Connection via S.P. Bailey’s “spark”

      Comments Off on On Language and Connection via S.P. Bailey’s “spark”

Anthology Poet Highlight 46/82: S.P. Bailey, “spark” Even though it’s short, S.P. (Shawn) Bailey’s “spark” has potential for diverse readings—even moreso, I think, because it’s not punctuated. This places greater emphasis on the words and the lines themselves and invites readers to contemplate how these words and lines work together as a series of signs and sounds, arranged by the… Read more »

How Do We Do It?: Jim Richards’ “Cleave”

      Comments Off on How Do We Do It?: Jim Richards’ “Cleave”

Anthology Poet Highlight 39/82: Jim Richards, “Cleave” [audio: http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/tumblr_lxc4b0b5581qldxkx.mp3] (My reading of “Cleave”) I take Jim’s “it” to be, yes, sex—but also more than sex. It take it to be the much deeper state of being, the more-than-intimate connection, the dual state of oneness entered into when partners become more than lovers, lovers more than partners. Such eroticism goes much… Read more »

Rhetorics of Grace in Sunni Wilkinson’s “Acrobats”

      Comments Off on Rhetorics of Grace in Sunni Wilkinson’s “Acrobats”

Anthology Poet Highlight 34/82: Sunni Brown Wilkinson, “Acrobats” (scroll down) “Acrobats” explores rhetorics of grace. It contrasts the simple and scripted made-for-TV “piety”—an easily imitated and consumed brand commodified and encouraged by the (early morning? early afternoon?) televangelist—with the speaker’s own halting attempts to “awaken [her] faith” to something beyond play-acting, beyond miming the preacher “in front of the mirror.” The… Read more »

“This Was When”: Matthew James Babcock’s “Moose Remembered”

      Comments Off on “This Was When”: Matthew James Babcock’s “Moose Remembered”
"Moose in the Neighbor's Yard"

Anthology Poet Highlight 33/82: Matthew James Babcock, “Moose Remembered” (scroll down) [audio: http://www.terrain.org/poetry/25/mp3/Babcock_MooseRemembered_Terrain.org.mp3] (Matthew’s reading of “Moose Remembered” [from Terrain.org]) This poem features a moose, but it’s about memory: the redemption of past experience. “This was when,” the poet begins, speaking to his wife, I presume, about a Saturday morning earlier in their marriage when he, as a young husband… Read more »

Airing the Cultural Laundry: Laura Baxter’s “Take Care of Your Soul—It’s Flapping in the Breeze”

      Comments Off on Airing the Cultural Laundry: Laura Baxter’s “Take Care of Your Soul—It’s Flapping in the Breeze”

Anthology Poet Highlight 32/82: Laura Nielson Baxter, “Take Care of Your Soul—It’s Flapping in the Breeze“ “Take Care” is an exercise in absurdity. I mean, a neighbor airing his soul on a clothesline like recently washed laundry then leaving it to dry for a few decades? How absurd! But this premise hasn’t been pushed to absurdity just for absurdity’s sake. This… Read more »