Carey McHugh on her poem “The Farrier”
Carey McHugh talks about the genesis of her poem “The Farrier.”
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Carey McHugh on reading her poems aloud when she writes
Carey McHugh talks about reading her poems aloud when she writes.
Enumeration
Go to the window. Count the birds. How many seagulls are there? How many cries? You must work hard. Like this. Like this. The single musical phrase practiced over and over. The work is intricate he said, running his fingers over the carved green wood. Sometimes it was iron, sometimes tin. Tin squares on the […]
Caution, Freight
In the river of my dream I’m ankle-deep in the water’s muddy froth, my cuffs rolled up. A manatee or alligator swims at me and rises, hugely brown. It’s the size of a submarine with dull, enormous eyes. You call it hell dog and begin to flee. The narrator of the dream informs: The hell […]
Hymn
The pink troll of our decade snickers from under its bridge as the country goes crazy for jesus and the grey men in the alley start to stink. I am humming under my breath in the key of doubt as you pray to the god of washrooms, make us clean. Each day’s bitter ribbon and […]
Grief Street
Thailand, 2005 If not for the ship’s hull liquoring light, the day’s bent edge, the arc of a traitorous thought, if not for thresh and thrash in my blood like a thousand bells, then anise and white silk would lay us down, then we would lick the scene as a tomcat preens its belly, static-struck […]
In Medias Res
Before the day grows hot, she wakes to the drone of bees. She fastens the braid of her leaving, hooks her shadow back to the wall like a coat. She counts the pieces of dreams: ten black birds and a coin. Coastline where a blue house waits with its rooms like hearts. Now when she […]
Crossing to Chebeague: December in Casco Bay
For Anne Porter Driven for once below deck, I watch as the snow spins down, squint at pines in the distance: the thaw is a long way off. A little smoke leaks from the houses. The water fills with snow. The cabin smells of diesel fuel and wool. These, then, are the islands from which […]