Poets and Poems: Donna Vorreyer and “Unrivered”

I’ve reached the age when you realize most of your life is behind you. Your priorities and interests have changed. You care more about art, for example, than you used to. Judged by how much you spend reading it, the most interesting thing in the newspaper is the obituary section.  

You realize that you’re a link in a chain; that’s why you are considerably more interested in family history and genealogy and FamilySearch.org is one of your most visited web sites. You also learn why your mother spent so much of her later years in doctors’ offices, and why your mother-in-law stays fascinated with watching the antics of birds.

 

In short, you think about things that weren’t even on your radar scope 20 and 30 years ago.

 

Poet Donna Vorreyer is thinking about those things, too, things like grief, aging, longing, the beauty of nature, why your bones are aching more, the importance of holding on, and why those small daily delights become more important and vital than your career. “I have nothing left to prove,” she writes. And she’s assembled her thoughts, meditations, and observations to form her latest collection, Unrivered: Poems. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Delicate Machinery Suspended: Poems by Anne Overstreet – review by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

“Melbourne Heatwave,” poem by Philip Hodgins – Lucas Smith at The Sprawl of Quality.

 

Today, or was it yesterday – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Saint of Avowal – Lisa Marie Basile at Every Day Poems.

 

“La Belle Dame sans Merci,” poem by John Keats – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Poetic Voices: Paula Marie Coomer and Donna Vorreyer

                      

Poetry takes work – poetry is work – and it’s also a house filled with windows, enabling the poet to look outward and the reader to look inward. Two recent collections underscore both points.

I’m always looking for stories about poetry at work, and invariably finding them. And I found quite a few in Nurses Who Love English (2013) by Paula Marie Coomer. I found quite a few other things as well.

Coomer is a poet, novelist, and essayist. She’s previously published a poetry collection, Devil at the Crossroads (2006) and a chapbook, Road, containing one poem. Her novel Dove Creek was published in 2011, the same year she published a collection of short stories, Summer of Government Cheese. She’s even written a memoir about food and published a cookbook based on the memoir.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.