POETRY CRITICISM FEATURED ARTIST CONTRIBUTORS GUIDELINES ABOUT TIMELINE
Nicole Caruso Garcia


Snow White's Plea to the Huntsman

Asleep, I shiver in a silken gown
and wait for you to find me in the dark.
Don't let me waken shackled to a crown,
too drowsy to resist that royal mark.
You saved me once and fooled the wicked queen
who craved a lung and liver fricassee.
Though served a hoax, she licked her fingers clean.
By sparing me your sword, you captured me.
Let moonlight vigil lead you to my lips,
and prove your kiss will break this spell's embrace.
The prickly arrows of your cheek eclipse
affection from the smoothest princely face.
Such knaves can plunder castles, trinkets, art,
but only you can breach my fortressed heart.



Brick by Brick

normal sick
normal sick

fingerprint
and finger prick

once a week
sit in this chair

lift heavy words
into the air

it's what you are
supposed to do

they'll watch while you
dismantle you

hoist each brick
for scrutiny

then back where it's
supposed to be

pieced together
but no stronger

same bricks
new mortar




Counterfeiter

Inside a diary quite pink and tame,
in purple ink my first love's name was set.
But I was nine, so names renounced became
confetti I could scatter and forget.
Compelled to purge each scrap of evidence,
I ripped. The rabbit on the cover smiled,
more willing to be marred by this offense
than by these false devotions be defiled.

I grew, pronounced my love upon man's lips
in earnest. Feathery, each stroke I signed,
my body scrawled across the mattress. Script
so deftly forged leaves volumes to unbind.
And now, mind stained with my calligraphy,
what can I tear with schoolgirl luxury?

































AUTHOR BIO

Nicole Caruso Garcia was born in New Jersey in 1972. She earned her B.A. in English from Fairfield University, and after seven years in corporate industry, she left to earn her M.S. in Education from The University of Bridgeport. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in literary journals such as Soundings East, The Ledge, and Small Pond Magazine of Literature. She and her husband live in Connecticut, where she now teaches literature and creative writing at Trumbull High School.

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
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Waywiser Press
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BOOKS
Alibris
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Grolier Poetry Bookshop
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Tattered Cover Bookstore

OTHER RESOURCES
92nd Street Y
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