Paula Bonnell

Welcome

For two poems, an essay, and tidbits, please check out IN THE WINDOW.

For more poems, see QUICK LINKS, at right, below.


For an overview of all three Selected Works, you are invited to visit BOOKS.

Anywhere in the site, if you click any of the blue book or poem titles you'll see more about each of the books and can read several poems.

Quick Links will take you directly to places in the site where you can find poems currently posted and places elsewhere where you can buy the books or read more about them and their poems.


Mi casa es su casa. Please make yourself at home.


Winner of the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry

     Selected by Mark Jarman


In selecting Airs & Voices for the Ciardi Prize, poet and critic Mark Jarman said,
The voice in Airs & Voices is fresh and original. Though the poet never labors to be significant, even the slightest poem lingers in memory. Wallace Stevens's thoughtfulness is present, but so is his playfulness. Kenneth Koch's playfulness is here, but so is his thoughtfulness. Whether speaking as various snowmen in "New Song" or as parts of a household in "Domestic Opera," the poet finds just the right expression for the subject, with a warmth and good humor that are in short supply nowadays. Sometimes the compassion is startling, as in "Elegy for an Unlikeable Sister-in-Law." Yet an austerity can take hold as well. "The Voices" makes us listen again to the things we said in response to 9/​11. Finally, to paraphrase one of the most moving poems in Airs & Voices, "History and a House," this poetry is "so good. It must have happened before." And yet it all seems brand new.



More about Airs & Voices:


In October 2008,
USA Book News selected Airs & Voices as one of seven finalists
for its Best Poetry Book 2008 Award.


To buy now, call BkMk Press at (816) 235-2558. You can charge a single copy for $15.95 or two copies for $30.40. These prices include shipping.
(You CAN by phone buy by credit card; they cannot accept credit-card orders by e-mail.)

If you want to buy online you can do so by clicking the link to Small Press Distributors in the right-hand sidebar at "Quick Links."


Would you like to learn more?


Richard Wilbur called Airs & Voices "enchanting," adding that it deals "subtly with painful or touching things,
as in 'History & a House.'"

&

Maxine Kumin said Airs & Voices is "full of quirky insights that keep Bonnell's poems fresh and interesting."

&

"A clear, subtle, witty, and authentic voice," said X. J. Kennedy. " 'The Voices' may be one of the wisest comments on the catastrophe of 9/​11 an American poet has made."

Read the full text of their quotes and an author bio by using the Quick Link in the sidebar to BkMk Press's catalogue page for Airs & Voices.

Price $13.95 paperback, 78 pages


Also available from Grolier Poetry Book Shop (617) 547-4648, fax (617) 547-4230, and e-mail grolierpoetry@​verizon.net.

A description of the poems in Airs & Voices appears on the Books page of this website.

Selected Works

poetry books
The world as peaceable kingdom is interrupted by wars and rumors of wars.
Lyric and narrative poems, including "Eurydice," a re-telling of the myth
poetry collection manuscript
This as-yet unpublished collection was a finalist in the National Poetry Series. "Plain Speech" and "Scenic Postcard" -- both reachable through the Quick Links below -- are from Amaranth.

Quick Links

Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics
"In Konigsberg" from AIRS & VOICES is featured.
Small Press Distributors
You can buy Airs & Voices online from SPD.
"Forsythia"
for spring, a poem from MESSAGE
"Midwest"
a poem from MESSAGE, which was read on The Writer's Almanac
"Scenic Postcard"
a poem from AMARANTH, a collection of poems by Paula Bonnell which was a finalist for the National Poetry Series (under its former title, ABRACADABRA), as published in Rattle #24, Winter 2005
"The Faraway Nearby" and "Plain Speech"
from Airs & Voices and from AMARANTH
BkMk Press
Authors Guild
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