Janice D. Soderling
Jenny and Squire Joe
Tell me, who is that ghostly girl,
sad eyes pale as mother-of-pearl,
green silk hair like a fennel frond,
tattered dress like a vagabond,
face so fervent, pinched and white,
a hand that greets, or lifts in fright?
She walks here weeping every night.
She walks up from the bloated pond
when bats and glowworms swirl.
Why, that's our Jenny, round and fair,
sodden grass in her yellow hair,
who lifts a hand in bleak farewell
to Squire Joe, may he rot in hell
for wicked tricks he taught in play,
for rudely turning her away,
for leading our own girl astray.
Fair drowned Jenny, starting to swell,
walking the chill night air.
Fissures
At owl-light I follow the long stone wall
through quickening green where nettles sprawl.
My thoughts are not busy with you at all.
Or the curlew crying.
Little is left of the rough-edged chill,
only clear rivulets surging downhill
where the lake's ice cover breaks sharp and shrill.
Like the curlew crying.
Too early for coltsfoot. Too late for all-heal.
Cranes bugle and lift. Larks spiral and peal.
There's nothing can comfort the rending I feel.
And the curlew crying.
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| AUTHOR BIO |
 Janice D. Soderling is a previous contributor to Mezzo Cammin. Her poems, fiction and translations are published in anthologies and a diversity of journals and zines such as Studio Journal, Magma Poetry, Horizon Review, The Centrifugal Eye, Pedestal Magazine, Coe Review, Autumn Sky Poetry, Tilt-a-Whirl, Turtle Quarterly, Boston Literary Magazine, protestpoems, Poemeleon, Literary Bohemian. Literary Mama. She has been nominated for Sundress Best of the Net, Dzanc Best of the Web, and the Pushcart Prize; and was honored with a regional Artist of the Year award for writings in Swedish. |
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| POETRY CONTRIBUTORS |
 Taylor Altman
Barb Crane
Janann Dawkins
Rose Kelleher
Athena Kildegaard
Jean L. Kreiling
Barbara Loots
Susan McLean
Mary Meriam
Annabelle Moseley
Wendy Sloan
Janice D. Soderling
Alison Talbott
Catherine Tufariello
Deborah Warren
Joyce Wilson
Marly Youmans
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AWP, Washington, D.C.
The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project
(Anna Evans, Kim Bridgford, Erica Dawson, Jehanne Dubrow, Kathrine Varnes)
Room: Virginia A
Marriott Wardman Park
Lobby Level
Saturday, February 5
10:30-11:45 AM
Fifth-Anniversary MC Reading
West Chester University Poetry Conference
Friday, June 10
8:15 AM
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Meredith Bergmann: An artist's statement is a formal thing--not written out in lines, but still constrained in length, and more particularly, tone. One should assert one's strategies, and boast about creative mischief. (Dithering is better done in verse.) But I'm restrained by wanting you to find out on your own what tickles me, and what moves me the most.
I sometimes doubt that humor really heals. Perhaps I want to wound instead, to wake; to wrong what may too easily be right. I love how sudden recognition feels, and play with that in everything I make--as in my second sonnet for this site. | |
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