The Year in Dispatches, Poetry

This week, as we look back on the year, I’d like to highlight the work of some of the poets featured in Dispatches. It’s sometimes hard to pin a location to a poem, and at the same time, a poem can often take readers more accurately to the heart of a place than a reported dispatch. This year’s poems took readers all over the world, from sleepy American towns to European cities to remote forests and islands. Here are a few of my favorites, all worth a second look:

Yvette Christiansë’s haunting “Uneasy Sleep”, which takes readers to a tiny island in the depths of the South Atlantic;

Cralan Kelder’s spare painting of Bali, “Bring ‘Em Home”;

Krista Leahy’s late night in a small town, “Redressed”;

Brian Simoneau’s view of the Pacific, “Poem With Snowy Plovers”;

and finally, poet Kobus Moolman’s moving essay about teaching poetry in prison.

 

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons

The Year in Dispatches, Poetry

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Dispatch from Camelback Mountain

CHRISTOPHER AYALA
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In fall, the persimmon trees light their lanterns

CHRISTY TENDING
And I plunge my foot into the scalding water, dropping my resistance to its intensity. I move toward it, inward. I move fast so that my body is unable to register the purposeful heat this place contains—something primordial, obscured by a white, industrial exterior.

A sunny, cobblestone street framed by buildings with flat, golden-yellow facades. Ivy creeps between the buildings, hanging above the path.

The Laws of Time and Physics

JESSICA PETROW-COHEN
My necklace has a thin silver chain and a pendant made of sapphires. My mommy says she knew that my mama was ready to die when she gave away her jewelry. I can see it all so vividly. It’s happening now, in June, not then, in June, time is collapsing, June is June is June.