Michele Leavitt
Seven-Card Elegy
My father taught me how to play the hand
he dealt. He drilled me to recall each card
that fell face-up. His cynical command
was Take advantage. Plenty never guard
against their tells. That finger on the chin?
It means the bastard filled a Swiss-cheese straight.
That blink? It means a bluff. I learned to win
and lose without expression, to lay in wait.
When Pops had nothing left to teach, he lost
his patience, grew disgusted when I bet
on clearly losing cards, or when I tossed
a winner out. I taught myself to get
up from the table—to play the card of tough
indifference. Then indifference paid enough.
Elegy for Esabella
Predicted dead the day that you were born,
you stayed for seven years of seizures,
your neurons firing like sleet on glass. A constant storm,
then inexplicably, an hour of peace, a silencing.
You stayed for seven years.
You liked the sound of paper ripping.
At least, I thought you did, hoping
you would tell me all you had been thinking.
Did you like the sound of paper ripping?
The snow keeps falling here. Now, you are ash.
Can that speak, and tell me all you have been thinking?
Does it matter if I'm far away?
The snow keeps falling here, like ash
and memory. Like neurons, firing.
I feel your breath; no matter if I'm far away.
The snow drifts, inexplicably, to silencing.
The Unchanged Woman
—after "The Changed Woman" by Louise Bogan
Again she bears what she once bore,
And not because she has forgotten
The weight. Asleep, she opens the door
To peace: a single chair, pale cotton
Shift, empty pages. No fuss.
Awake, the garden reminds her of
Her choices: dahlias, hibiscus
Weighed down by honeybees' love,
The way some women bend below
Their children's weight. Not her. She dead-
Heads blossoms past their first hello
And brushes past the bees that spread
Their busy legs and baskets, winnowing
Out pollen she doesn't wish to capture.
Her interest isn't in the finishing,
Or mundane seeds that once were rapture.
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| AUTHOR BIO |
| Michele Leavitt, a poet and essayist, is also a high school dropout, hepatitis C survivor, and former trial attorney. Her essays have appeared in venues including Guernica, Catapult, The Journal, and So to Speak; one was listed in 2015 as a Longreads Top Five of the Week, and another received a notable mention in Best American Essays 2011. Poems appear most recently, or are forthcoming, in North American Review, Gravel, Hermeneutic Chaos, and Cleaver. Her full-length collection, Back East, was the recipient of the Michael Macklin Award and was published by Moon Pie Press in 2013.
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| POETRY CONTRIBUTORS |
 Catherine Chandler
Rebekah Curry
Anna M. Evans
Nicole Caruso Garcia
Vernita Hall
Katie Hoerth
Michele Leavitt
Barbara Loots
Joan Mazza
Kathleen McClung
Becca Menon
Diane Moomey
Sally Nacker
Stella Nickerson
Samantha Pious
Monica Raymond
Jennifer Reeser
Jane Schulman
Katherine Barrett Swett
Jane Schulman
Paula Tatarunis
Ann Thompson
Jo Vance
Lucy Wainger
Gail White
Cheryl Whitehead
Liza McAlister Williams
Sherraine Pate Williams
Marly Youmans
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The most recent addition to The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline is Jane Kenyon by Susan Spear.
Gail White and Nausheen Eusuf are the recipients of the 2017 Mezzo Cammin Scholarships to the Poetry by the Sea conference.
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| Alice Mizrachi is a New York based interdisciplinary artist working in the mediums of painting, installation, murals and socially engaged art. Her work explores the interconnectedness of individuals and community through the dual lens of compassion and empathy. Through figurative work that reinforces both personal and community-oriented identity, Alice aims to inspire creative expression and a sense of shared humanity through art.
Alice has worked as an arts educator for nearly twenty years for a variety of organizations including BRIC Arts, The Laundromat Project and The Studio Museum in Harlem. As a pioneer in the field of socially engaged art at the local level, Alice has been recognized and selected to develop arts education curriculum for organizations such as HI-ARTS (Harlem, NY), Dr. Richard La Izquierdo School and Miami Light Project. She has also been a panelist discussing community-engaged art for events at Brown University and The Devos Institute of Arts Management.
As a painter, Alice maintains both a studio practice and an extensive body of work as a muralist. Her work have been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, UN Women and the Museum of Contemporary Art in DC. She has been commissioned as a mural artist for projects in Amsterdam, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and across the United States by organizations and museum including: Knox-Albright Museum, Buffalo, NY; Worcester DCU (Worcester, Massachusettes); Wall Therapy (Rochester, NY); La Mama and Fourth Arts Block (NYC); Miami Light Project (Miami, FL); and, Chashama (Harlem, NY), among others.
Alice's mural and installation work has been constructed in galleries and public spaces as part of site-specific arts education and community development projects. Her work often engages local neighborhoods and reflects positive visual responses to social issues. Her process activates a shared space of love, hope, optimism and healing as a means to connect with participants. Frequent topics include identity, unity, migration and the sacred feminine.
Alice and her art have been featured in a variety of publications including the book, 2Create, Outdoor Gallery: New York City, the New York Times, and Huffington Post and The Architectural Digest. She has a BFA from Parsons School of Design and was an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in 2015. Alice was also the co-founder of Younity, an international women's art collective active from 2006-2012. She has received grants from The Puffin Foundation and The Ford Foundation. Her recent projects include a residency in Miami with Fountainhead, a residency with Honeycomb Arts In Buenos Aires and a mural with The Albright Know Museum in Buffalo. Alice currently holds a studio space at The Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx. Her upcoming projects include a workshop/ panel at Brown University and a book release in Summer 2017.
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