On Karen Kelsay’s In Spite of Her

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Anthology Poet Highlight 9/82: Karen Kelsay, In Spite of Her In her chapbook of narrative poems, In Spite of Her, Karen explores the relationship between a middle-aged woman and a world that changes and moves on “in spite of her” (“In Spite of Her,” line 11). These poems become acts of mourning mixed with moments of acceptance of and resignation… Read more »

The Blessing and Curse of Michael R. Collings’ “Legacy”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 8/82: Michael R. Collings, “Legacy“ (My reading of Michael’s poem.) Michael’s longish poem, “Legacy,” breaches the subject of family in a way that neither sentimentalizes the good nor that glosses over the difficult. This is apparent in the first lines in which the poet says, “By all accounts my great-great-great / was / a thorough-going bastard /… Read more »

Elizabeth Garcia Talks “The Semantics of Blessings”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 7/82: Elizabeth (Cranford) Garcia, “The Semantics of Blessings“ (My reading of Liz’s poem) Liz’s unrhymed, free-variation on the sonnet, “The Semantics of Blessings,” took an Honorable Mention in Segullah‘s 2007 Poetry Contest. Cranford also took First Place in this contest with her poem (another sonnet), “Reproach.” Both, I think, are excellent poems, tightly crafted and nuanced enough… Read more »

Ah, To Live for Dizziness: Mark Bennion’s “Still Life”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 6/82: Mark Bennion, “Still Life“ (Scroll down) (My reading of Mark’s poem) Mark Bennion’s first collection, Psalm & Selah is a great example of what a good poet can do in response to the Book of Mormon, which is to explore the stories many Mormons know so well in ways that shed new light on them, in… Read more »

The Deep-throated Ache of Marilyn Bushman Carlton’s “Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major“

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Anthology Poet Highlight 5/82: Marilyn Bushman-Carlton, “Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major“ (Here’s a link to my reading of Marilyn’s poem.) Music, as poetry, has power to bind us through and with the body’s rhythms. Marilyn Bushman-Carlton provides a case in point with “Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major,” a fairly short poem that shows the… Read more »

“How We are Saved” in/by Neil Aitken’s Lost Country of Sight

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Anthology Poet Highlight 4/82: Neil Aitken, The Lost Country of Sight Neil’s first collection begins with a poem—“In the Long Dream of Exile” (hear Neil read it below)—that marks the solitary nature of the poet’s vocation. Pointing to this call to wander rhetorical landscapes in pursuit of, among other things, what poet Adrienne Rich calls “the dream of a common… Read more »

A Walk through “My True Country” with Susan Elizabeth Howe

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Anthology Poet Highlight 3/82: Susan Elizabeth Howe, “My True Country” Susan is one of Mormon culture’s more prominent poets. She’s published in some of the nation’s prestigious journals and has served as the poetry editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and Literature and Belief. Her Poetry Foundation bio note speaks to her influences and something of her philosophy:… Read more »

On Terresa Wellborn’s “Welcoming the Epilogue”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 2/82: Terresa Wellborn, “Welcoming the Epilogue,” Inscape (Winter 2011) [soundcloud id=’41736361′ playerType=’Standard’ width=’54%’ color=’#003366′] (My reading of “Welcoming the Epilogue”) Terresa’s voice is distinctive, clear, and strong and her phrasing is often striking. Notice, for instance, the alliteratives that hold this stanza together and that propel the tongue toward climax: the r’s, th’s, w’s, s’s, c’s. And… Read more »

Doug Talley’s “Finding Place”: Consider. Simply Consider.

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Anthology Poet Highlight 1/82: Doug Talley, “Finding Place” [soundcloud id=’41731292′ playerType=’Standard’ width=’55%’ color=’#003366′] (My reading of “Finding Place”) From my preface to Fire in the Pasture: Doug Talley’s poem, “Finding Place,” . . . speaks to the intersection of religious, spiritual, and moral experience with the aesthetic experience inherent in well-crafted poetry. Through metaphors we often use to describe and… Read more »