Esoteric
2013
She stands with bare feet On a marble bathroom floor The temperature outside has not yet Reached up to the predicted low for today These days she keeps mostly to herself No one else can bear it...
Poetry in the Ramsey County Detention Center
2013
We come from separate compartments, they from carrels, I, from my usual routine, form a circle, except for the young man next to me who turns away.
Purgatory
By Sharon Chmielarz ● 2013
It is love and sensing the departed is present somewhere between being able to be reached or not. Neither alive nor dead. It is searching, hopefully, for him...
Name Poem
2013
Riva, sounds simple But is made up of tangled detail From the blood in Israel To my flesh in America...
Winter Coming
2013
It’s autumn. Leaves have taken over the back porch and I sit at the window, hungry for soup. You have been gone for years now...
I Loved You
2013
I loved you, and I probably still do And for a while the feeling may remain But let my love no longer trouble you, I do not wish to cause you any pain...
Purgatory, or Riding the Bus Home from School
2013
There is no seat you want to sit in, no place that you belong, so you choose one near the middle, closer to the back than the front, one with a kid in it, wearing a faded jean jacket and striped watch cap. A skinny kid who stares at his hands, lying in his lap. His fingers are slender, stunning—and you are ashamed that you notice.
Work Avoidance
2013
I would like to propose the following techniques as viable displays when encountering the suckitude of work as developed and employed by my son Dylan, the demonstrative kindergartener...
Of a Kind
2013
Outside Merriam Park Library, a rusty black bike shares a lock with another well-worn bike stowed in the metal rack. Both nose their front wheels into the stanchion like lowly animals...
Inspiration and Perspiration
2013
Write, revise Write, revise Right? Revise, write Revise, write Revise. Right?
Poem: My Chocolate
2013
The warmth of his hands that wrap mine in the winters of Valentine love, The tall body that pulls my eyes to recognize him from behind and far away, The name that I call out just to hear his strong unique voice, The gentle look in his eyes that melt my sensations, He’s become the replacement of my milk chocolates...
A Song Apart
By Patricia Kirkpatrick ● 2012
Ceres, Goddess of Corn, grieved and raged for her stolen daughter. They say she withheld the harvest. But corn was already here...