Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Monosyllabics
"One day she fell in love with its heft and speed."
--Josephine Jacobsen, "The Monosyllable"
I.
Day two
she sees
what more
it can do:
Speak he & she,
thou & thee,
me & you--
Teach school,
bird & word,
beast & feast,
sage & fool--
Hold the world
in small
(its rise & fall)--
Count one to ten--
True friend,
Love the lone & odd--
Name God.
II.
Day three,
part & whole,
flesh & soul,
sing their tune:
hip & lip,
thigh & eye,
heart & art.
Time & tomb,
spell out doom.
Scourge & cross
seals the loss.
Flesh and bread
serve as sign,
and this blood
once was wine.
The Word holds
Child of God
yet not
di-vine.
III.
Day four:
the small hours,
days & weeks,
months & years,
all pool here
in the tin cup
of time--
but not
the wild loves
of a night heart,
not
the brief breaths
of the day's part
where we live
and die
most true.
Try to paint
the green world
with no blue.
Emily & Botany
Emily Dickinson's Garden Exhibition,
NY Botanical Gardens, May 5, 2010
Poems rise like Irises--
Slender girls who tell
Their secrets to the bees--
Beg our attention,
A blind man's cup
Offered you & me.
I lend my eyes--
You give your tongue--
And--word wise--gradually--
Minds collect
And genuflect
As one who once were three.
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| AUTHOR BIO |
| Angela Alaimo O'Donnell teaches English, Creative Writing, and interdisciplinary courses in American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in New York City. Her book Saint Sinatra & Other Poems (Word Press) is forthcoming in 2011. Previous books include a full-length collection, Moving House (Word Press, 2009), and two chapbooks, Mine (Finishing Line Press 2007) and Waiting for Ecstasy (Franciscan University Press, 2009). Her poems have appeared in a number of journals, including America, Comstock Review, First Things, Hawaii Pacific Review, Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, Pedestal Magazine.com, Post Road, Potomac Review, RUNES, The Nepotist.org, and Xavier Review. O'Donnell was a finalist for the Foley Poetry Award and the Mulberry Poets Award, and her work has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Web prizes. Earlier work in Mezzo Cammin includes a critical essay on poet Josephine Jacobsen (2007.2) and poems (2009.2).
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| POETRY CONTRIBUTORS |
 Taylor Altman
Sarah Busse
Nicole Caruso Garcia
Brittany Hill
Lisa Huffaker
Jean Kreiling
Barbara Loots
Charlotte Mandel
Annabelle Moseley
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Ann Walker Phillips
Carolyn Raphael
Jennifer Reeser
Hollis Robbins
Catherine Tufariello
Doris Watts
Joyce Wilson
Marly Youmans
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Fifth-Anniversary MC Reading
West Chester University Poetry Conference
Friday, June 10
8:15 AM
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| Alice Mizrachi: Growing up in New York, I have been immersed in a culture that is constantly growing. Throughout my work you can feel the influence the city has had on me, the never-ending desire to grow and flow. One common thread in my work is the texture--rhythm and layers. I love to incorporate tactile surfaces that compel the audience to approach and feel it. Timeless and universal, my images evoke a raw feminine energy that leaves you feeling nurtured. My art is a vehicle to express to the world my journey as a NYC female artist in the past, present and future. I am logging my time here. After completing a residency in Paris during 2010, I am focusing on residencies in other cities with the intention of spreading my art globally. | |
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