Goose Hill

  These Silence of the Lambs poems of mine have always been especially rooted in the visual. Even when the poem series was just an idea, I had imagined the words side-by-side with illustration. But I am not a visual artist and I let this self-knowledge stop me from attempting this parallel path for a while. Thankfully there are poets like Matthea Harvey and Kristy Bowen who show how this line can be crossed by the poet and in tandem with the poem. Matthea, with her mermaid-appliance silhouettes and her photographs of miniatures. Kristy, with her collages combining the mid-century housewife with the carnivalesque with the natural world. Their approaches to their visual art are so intertwined with their poetic styles and subjects that they make the perfect complements to each other. Because I think collage is, essentially, the predominant principle guiding my creative style (even in writing poetry — especially for this specific poem series), I finally realized that this

Some great news to begin the dead-damn-dog days of August: two of my Silence of the Lambs poems have been accepted for publication at the fantastic Tinderbox Poetry Journal !  "Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling?" and "Look at him, Starling. Tell me what you see." will be appearing in a future Tinderbox issue. I'll let you know when they're up. The latter poem will also be included in the next poetry anthology in the Literary House Press series, Still Life with Poem: 100 Natures Mortes in Verse . So much to look forward to. So far, this has been a fairly productive poetry-writing summer. I'm hoping to eke a few more out before we hit September, which looms ever closer and taunts me with thoughts of crisp golden days, and long chilly nights. Happy August, poetry-friends!