Douglas Woodsum

Douglas “Woody” Woodsum has published poetry, prose, and cartoons in many magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, including Yankee, Maine Times, The Cafe Review, Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, English Journal, Off the Coast, Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Colorado Review, South Florida Poetry Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Puckerbrush Review,New England Review, and The Beloit Poetry Journal. His work has been broadcast on Maine Public Radio. He is a former […]

12 years ago

Melting

Being a glacier, I remember birth, The waves of stars falling over the years, White, six-pointed stars descending to form My soul. On my birthday, it always snows. Being the sea, you wait for everything With motherly love. You eat continents Of land, continents of ice. Your blue tongue Catches snow. You taste like salt. […]

20 years ago

Ode: To Trees

You giants, you dwarves; you leaners, you poles; you gnarled fists, you saplings with two leaves; you bare harbingers of cold, you budding heralds of green . . . I sing your praise. You earth holders, you soil protectors; you bird sanctuaries, you shelters for the deer; you child dandlers (I’ve seen you bounce them […]

20 years ago

Three Answers In Spring

1. Resurrection The corpses rise and challenge, coaxing me To rise, and, though I like spring, I hate this Constant rotting and rejuvenation Of flesh. The roots of the apple tree grip The long buried heart, and when the bees buzz Around the buds, it’s like flies feeding on Carrion. I’ve accepted the formal Attire […]

20 years ago

Chocolate Covered Apricots

Some nights have their rivers of milky light. In the rainy city the lights become Beams, fuzzy and bleeding, on the wet streets, Lights meandering through intersections Where freshly cut Christmas trees lean against Wires and giant sawhorses, young trees cut Off but safe, for now, in large numbers, and happy, Perhaps, to be away […]

20 years ago

Animal Crackers

Running through a forest in my bedroom I pass a lion sweet golden brown. A gorilla hangs on a vine near my closet. I eat his bananas. I rhinoceros chases me under my bed. I bite off his head. Crisp gazelles crunch lightly; giraffes slide down my throat. Teeth-snapping alligators and tasty tigers get the […]

20 years ago

Skaters of Corea Harbor

The harbor seldom freezes. When it does Only the hollow-boned gulls on their webbed Feet can enjoy the thin, brittle ice. Men In heavy boots and layers of wool break Through if they are so foolish as to try. Instead they wait for calm November dawns Like today, when the boats float on the sky. […]

20 years ago

Blackberry War

I do not often go looking for black. Afraid of the old dark all my life, I’ve learned To be in darkness and control my fear, Learned how rare it is to find true darkness. It’s found deep in new moon woods on starless nights Or in the windowless cellar of a house With the […]

20 years ago