In honor of my daughter, who’s 13, and despises Valentine’s Day (for what should be obvious reasons, if you remember anything at all about being 13) I’m posting an anti-Valentine poem Pokey wrote long ago (before she was even Pokey). This is for you, Maddy! X’s & O’s You can keep your four-leaf clover road … Continue reading Sour & Sweet
Author: pokey mama
hence the detour, ma’am
A couple of months ago I was in the car with my two children. It was late afternoon, one of those days where Pokey had already circumnavigated several points on our globe—school, home, work, school, home, soccer—and she was getting a tad frayed around the edges. Not crabby, mind you, just a bit unraveled. As … Continue reading hence the detour, ma’am
Zoe Deschanel & the Narrative Arc
If this were a movie and someone slyly beautiful were playing me, say Zooey Deschanel (with thick glasses to make her look a little less Deschanel), we’d be approaching some kind of zenith, we’d be belaying up a sheer rock face to the tippy top of the narrative arc where we might temporarily mistake denouement … Continue reading Zoe Deschanel & the Narrative Arc
One Way In, One Way Out
in which we pick up the thread of Pokey Mama's struggle with post-partum writer's block and her year as an Associate at the Five College Women's Studies Research Center looking at the impact of motherhood on the work of women poets... Are you old enough to remember the Wayback machine on the Rocky & Bullwinkle … Continue reading One Way In, One Way Out
pokey gets a yes
I’m treading the edge here, a line that shifts beneath my bare feet, salt and wrack swirling around my ankles. I’m noticing how it’s not just me that’s shifting, not just one edge but all edge, overlap and flip-flop, blurring and gradation. I believe this lack of faith in permanence may be what’s called an … Continue reading pokey gets a yes
i’m not sorry
You know that old barb about certain people being born with a silver spoon in their mouth? Pokey thinks she may have been born with an apology permanently imprinted on her tongue. Not the empathy-based, “sorry I stepped on your toe” kind of apology but the fear-based, “sorry I have to tell you that you’re … Continue reading i’m not sorry
birthdays, snoring & the wrong moon
It’s Pokey’s Birthday! Not MY birthday, but the birth-day of this here blog, and that notorious character I’ve come to love, who’s me and not me, which of course is total narcissism, but hey, it’s MOTHERS DAY, so cut me some slack, willya? Yes, a year ago I made my first post, and here I … Continue reading birthdays, snoring & the wrong moon
Get Thee to Massachusetts Poetry Fest
The poetry will be flying in Salem, Massachusetts, May 12, 13, and 14 at the 2011 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Sadly, Pokey will probably not be attending as her girl turns 13 Friday the 13th and she will be all about that celebration. But I did go last time, and loved the homegrown, democratic feel, the … Continue reading Get Thee to Massachusetts Poetry Fest
the guiddesses
…but who can tolerate the power of a woman close to a child, riding our tides into the sand dunes of the public spaces. --Alicia Suskin Ostriker, from “Propaganda Poem: Maybe for Some Young Mamas" When last we left Pokey she was doodling her way towards enlightenment, having at least identified the shape of what might … Continue reading the guiddesses
the big poetry giveaway
Kelli Russell Agodon over at Book of Kells has once again jumpstarted an extravaganza of poetry love, the Big Poetry Giveaway. Seeing as it’s April, National Poetry Month, and Fool’s Day is safely over, I thought I’d get on board. This is the deal: leave a comment here with your name and at the end … Continue reading the big poetry giveaway
Amy Dryansky 