Poetic Saturdays: If You Were Any More

Good morning! Hope you're having a spectacular Saturday morning. I'm up in Ohio visiting my two oldest sons and have already been greeted with snow (though just a dusting). For today's poem, I have a sonnet to share that I wrote somewhat recently.

if you were any more, by Robert Lee Brewer

sweet, i'd need a dentist. poetry don't
need to bring the sexy back, because it
never left. the enjambment and line breaks,
the leaping my mind makes when we're alone,
reader. sweet reader, i am watching you
reading me, leading me as i lead you
through this maze of my heart beats. my heart beats
meaning even i don't understand. steam
builds inside me until i can't contain
the words, word. swordfish twist against the line
as would anyone, reader. you're candy,
the kind once consumed drives a man insane,
and i love you--you have these words as proof.
i love you, sweet, but i have a sweet tooth.

*****

Newer Book:

Unmentionables
by Beth Ann Fennelly (Norton)

Booklist called Unmentionables, "insouciant, sexy, funny, and dead-on," and that's a pretty good 5-word definition of this collection. There is so much to love in this collection, from "The Kudzu Chronicles," a series of poems that were originally published as a limited edition chapbook by Crown Ring Press, to "Because People Ask What My Daughter Will Think of My Poems When She's 16." In fact, I think what Fennelly does so well is that she finds the pressure points and works them for all there is, and she does it with style. If you check out this collection, I promise you'll be hooked from the "First Warm Day in a College Town" to "The Welcoming," which, of course, is how the collection ends.

*****

Poems Found Online:

• Jahrzeit, by Bruce Bond from Linebreak
• On the Televised Arrival of Fire, by Jenny Gropp Hess from DIAGRAM
• Fairy Tale for Girls Who Gather Maps, by Sandy Longhorn from Pebble Lake Review
• Sunnies, by Debra Kaufman from Wild Goose Poetry Review
• The Last Bestiary, by Daniel Bourne from Guernica

*****

Older Book:

The House on the Marshland
by Louise Gluck (ECCO)

I was lucky enough to attend a reading by Gluck when I was a student at the University of Cincinnati. It's an experience I'd like to say I'll never forget. It was raining outside and the room was warm, so I felt almost wrapped in a dream while listening to Gluck read her poetry. I haven't run across a collection by Gluck that wasn't a great read, but The House on the Marshland is probably my favorite. It feels like poetry written for the autumn months, and that's always a winner for me.

*****

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*****

Check out previous Poetic Saturday posts:

• Now This Is How We Roll.
• The Kids Must Know Something.
• Until Further Notice.