In the window . . .
three by PB:
The titles are "Waking from a Nightmare," "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," "Stories, Doors," "Instrumental," "Migration," and "Someday."
from the 2015 Slippery Elm Literary Journal Online Edition
then in 2015 published in Slippery Elm Literary Journal Online Edition
PB's manuscript entered for the 2013 42 Miles Press Poetry Award placed fifth
in a field of 29 semi-finalists to become one of 13 finalists, then one of 4 runners-up.
Six poems were chosen from the finalists' mss. for publication on the 42 Miles Press's website.
"General Correspondence" was one of the six.
***---***---***---***---***
A reading by Paula Bonnell from Air & Voices took place as scheduled at the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library in the early evening of Thursday April 18, 2013, the day before the city was locked down with a shelter-in-place directive as a result of events later Thursday evening. A small appreciative unterrorized audience made the evening successful despite the uncertainties then prevailing, and everyone involved -- author, publisher, and audience -- appreciated the BPL's commitment to having the show go on.
"The Faraway Nearby" -- from Airs & Voices -- was first published in the Winter 2008 issue of The Hudson Review.
THE FARAWAY NEARBY
I could live in the next life
if only I could get to it
Driving onto the promontory
again and again, I visit the screened porch
sleep in new-washed sheets
drink the breeze
and depart across the grilled
pause in the road
that is the bridge. I look quickly
to left or right--is it high
or low tide? when will
I return to swim in it?
instead of bathing
in my sweat, laboring
to get here. I mean,
to get there for I remain
mired in the city of tasks,
always something urgent
presented unexpectedly
at the very moment of departure.
Oh, the summer of voices, the presence
of the grass, the suggestion
of wings in the moving
leaves as I leave--over
and over again--when I long
to arrive and stay.
Copyright Paula Bonnell 2008, 2010, 2014.
The Poetry of Wislawa Szymborska
by Paula Bonnell
This essay originally appeared, in slightly different form, in Boston Review, April 1983.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~ # * ~ # *
Airs & Voices is in stock at
617.547.4648
^~&^~&^~&^~&
at the Grolier:
. . . in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- while the Phi Beta Kappa Society of nearby Harvard University listened to Albert Goldbarth, its Poet for the 2009 Literary Exercises -- the Grolier Poetry Bookshop window featured books including Airs & Voices . . .
All text on this website, including in downloadable form:
Copyright Paula Bonnell 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
All rights reserved.