Serendipity in poetry


I have just returned from a great New England roadtrip in the name of my stepbrother's wedding. On our way to Rutland, Vermont, our route just happened to take us straight through the small town of Hoosick Falls, New York and then on past Bennington, Vermont. If either of those names sound familiar, it's probably because you just read my poem "Shirley Jackson is an Advice Columnist for the Bennington Banner" up on wicked alice. A mere 24 hours after that poem was published on wicked alice, the universe dropped its purely imagined setting into my lap. I love when the universe does that.

I wrote this poem as a kind of love letter to one of my favorite authors, Shirley Jackson, and my favorite of her novels, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. She spent a good portion of her life in Bennington, Vermont and much of her work was set in the midst of the American Gothic atmosphere of the New England countryside. If you have never read her, now is the perfect time of year to start.


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