POETRY CRITICISM FEATURED ARTIST CONTRIBUTORS GUIDELINES ABOUT TIMELINE
Marilyn Nelson


Andrew Williams

There ain‘t nothing shameful in good, honest work.
It‘s a proud man who brings home a decent wage.
Keep your head down; listen when rich folks talk.
Fine leather boots mark a financial sage.

One foot on my box, Mister Man stands tapping The News
on his knee, talking shop confidentially with a friend.
I swipe off the filth, then, with a clean rag, smooth
the boot with lampblack, beeswax, and lanolin.

I deal merchandise shipped in on the Erie Canal.
Buy low, sell high. I bought land for the right to vote.
(You massage through the boot: caress the toes, the heel.
If you‘re lucky, he‘ll say what‘s coming on tomorrow‘s boat.)

Thanks to dropped tips, I‘m the bootblack who owns this place.
I may bow at their knees, shushing with the horsehair brush,
but I buff with spit on a rag to a mirrored face
aflame with pride, blazing like a burning bush.



Epiphany Davis

I set up my cash box and my bones and cards
on Broadway, most days, offering what I see
of what‘s to come. For a donation, words
fall from my mouth, surprising even me.

Uncle Epiphany doesn‘t forecast death
or illness worse than gout or a broken bone.
The sailors stop. They listen with caught breath
as I tell them some girl‘s heart is still theirs alone.

(. . . or not. Young love is such a butterfly.)
Girls come, arms linked, giggling behind their fans.
The sad come. Uncle Epiphany does not lie.
I close shop, and come back up here to my land.

It‘s a new world up here, of beggar millionaires:
neighbors who know how we all scrimped and saved
to own this stony swamp with its fetid air,
to claim the dream for dreamers yet enslaved.

I‘m Epiphany Davis. I am a conjure-man.
I see glimpses. Glass towers. A horseless vehicle.
An American President who is half African.
Until you pay me, that‘s all I‘m going to tell.










































AUTHOR BIO

Marilyn Nelson's most recent book is a collaboration with Elizabeth Alexander called Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color. Forthcoming in October 2008 is a new book called The Freedom Business. She is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Nelson is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers' colony; and the former (2001—2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut.

POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

Tiel Aisha Ansari
B. J. Buckley
Terese Coe
Carol Dorf
Jehanne Dubrow
Nicole Caruso Garcia
Ona Gritz
Kathryn Jacobs
Allison Joseph
Susan McLean
Marilyn Nelson
Janice D. Soderling
Shanna Powlus Wheeler
Marly Youmans

FEATURED ARTIST
Jane Sutherland: I choose subjects that I cherish, or that spring from deep rooted feelings, or that come to me intuitively--dogs, roses, cranes, an iconic work of sculpture; and I concentrate on the details and slightest disparities in color, tone and textures in order to show how extraordinary are things we think we know and take for granted. The process of painting for me is connected to the physical properties of the subject as well as to its meanings, associations, and memories.
ARCHIVES
LINKS
POETRY
32 Poems
The Academy of American Poets
The Atlantic
The Christian Science Monitor
The Cortland Review
Favorite Poem Project
The Frost Place
The Iowa Review
Light Quarterly
Modern American Poetry
Measure
The Poem Tree
Poetry
Poetry Daily
Poetry Society of America
Poets House
Raintown Review
Slate
String Poet
Valparaiso Poetry Review
Verse Daily
Women's Poetry Listserv
The Yale Review

CONFERENCES
AWP
Bread Loaf
Poetry by the Sea
Sewanee


PUBLISHERS

Barefoot Muse Press
David Robert Books
David R. Godine Press
Graywolf Press
Headmistress Press
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Louisiana State University Press
Northwestern Univ Press
Ohio Univ Press
Persea Books
Red Hen Press
Texas Tech Univ Press
Tupelo Press
Univ of Akron Press
Univ of Arkansas Press
Univ of Illinois Press
Univ of Iowa Press
Waywiser Press
White Violet Press

BOOKS
Alibris
City Lights
Grolier Poetry Bookshop
Joseph Fox Bookshop
Prairie Lights
Tattered Cover Bookstore

OTHER RESOURCES
92nd Street Y
Literary Mothers
NewPages.com
Poets & Writers
10X10