POETRY FEATURED POET FEATURED ARTIST CONTRIBUTORS GUIDELINES ABOUT TIMELINE
Judith Grey


The Model

after Gypsy Woman with Baby, 1919
Amedeo Modigliani


She stares ahead in judgment with her child,
her face ruddy and lean, not a Madonna
whose lowered eyes are all caress. These eyes
are blue as cyanide, a gypsy curse
for those who stop before her regal pose.
Head up, back unbent; the challenge reeks.
I’m here. The swaddled child lives by my breast.
I sit for pittance, breathe consumptive air.
And who are you?
Her look accuses me
across two centuries, lands like a slap.
Free from more than canvas, frame, oil,
I turn away to break her laser gaze,
my privileged living flesh free to escape.
Is that the scent of almonds in the air?




Leaves

After Marianne Moore

fall
in the squall.
     Blown in from some broad expanse, they cram
     porch corner and door jam,
          piling in a jumble of brown

wind
drift. Air-skinned
     spider webs that hang on gingerbread
     strain in the gale and shred
          to wisps of sticky gossamer

thread,
where the dead
     remain. A wind gust barges in like
     a giant sneeze. The bike
          left unattended does a trick,

flips
and then skips
     a wheelie careening loose and free,
     lands pinned against a tree
          under a twist-splintered branch wrenched

loose.
What the use
     battening down for a gale? The storm
     is a unique art form
          defying all interference.

It,
bit by bit,
     rearranges landscape, wild and tame,
     a desultory game
          of gotcha by the bully wind.

































AUTHOR BIO

Judith Grey lives in Maine where she finds inspiration in the woods, by the sea, and in other wild places. Places her poems have been published include: The Lyric, Calyx, Blueline, The Baltimore Review, Oberon, About Place Journal: Practices of Hope, The Ravens Perch, and forthcoming in The Ocean State Review.



POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

Hilary Biehl
Judith Grey
Mureall Hebert
Jen Karetnick
E. R. Lutken
Marjorie Maddox
Diane Lee Moomey
Samantha Pious
Barbara Sabol
Wendy Sloan
Myrna Stone
J. C. Todd
Paulette Turco
Elaine Wilburt
Joyce Wilson

NEWS

This issue of Mezzo Cammin is also dedicated to its Founder and Managing Editor for 15 years, Dr. Kim Bridgford (1959-2020). [Photo: Marion Ettinger].

The 2021 Poetry by the Sea conference was canceled due to COVID-19. The next conference is planned for May 24-27 2022.

FEATURED ARTIST
Nicole Michaud: Throughout history, both women and fruit have been popular and enduring subjects for paintings. Women are referred to as the earth in which man plants a formed seed, distancing women from their capacity as creator. Rather, women engaging in procreation utilize the male 'pollen' to create and grow the embryonic seed of future generations.

From the Nariphon of Buddhist mythology (literal fruits shaped as women's bodies and absent bones) growing from the Makkaliphon tree, to the pomegranate of Greek mythology and the apple (or fig) of Judeo-Christian writings, women and fruit have been inextricably linked for millennia. Fruit is the basis of the temptation and fall from grace of Adam and Eve in the Bible, and serves as a treacherous precursor to conflict in mythologies such as the Greek golden apple's role in beginning the Trojan War. Women's bodies and body parts are often compared to apples, pears, melons, lemons, and other fruit. This association and dehumanization of women has facilitated an enduring mistreatment, ownership, and underestimation of capacity.

Inside, transformations are happening.

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


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