by McKenzie | Nov 8, 2015 | Poem of the Day Series
CROCUS I wanted to stay in the earth: There, I needed no skin—the dark body was all around me. I had no tongue. Above me, sleep, a heaven of snow. Years, years. Then the split, the blue heart lifted almost out—who was coming to save me? How...
by McKenzie | Nov 7, 2015 | Reading
THE SNOW MAN One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and...
by McKenzie | Nov 7, 2015 | Poetry Collections, Reviews
Sometimes I find myself thinking so much about what poetry is or what it can do that I forget to think about how it can make me feel. Perhaps that is the sign of a lesser poetry, a poetry with holes in it: one that goes through the motions, the mechanics, of...
by McKenzie | Nov 7, 2015 | Poem of the Day Series
IT BLOWS YOU HOLLOW It takes your bones to bed, tongues out the marrow. Says it will meet you halfway, a hotel deep in Oklahoma where you’ll get adjoining rooms and have a couple of nervous breakdowns. It’s a no-show, waylaid. It orders the...
by McKenzie | Nov 6, 2015 | Poem of the Day Series
VESPERTINE I can still see it, evenings: the sky an orange liquor over the coming dark, a woman brushing the twigs from her hair, dwarf trees sparkling with a lavender mist. But it’s something else, a step into the old, wonderful story in which the...
