Marly Youmans's Blog, page 40

You Asked, no. 4. With bells on.

A flowering head--what every writer desires.
Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins,
division page for Maze of Blood.

Scroll down if you want nothing but the You Asked. Otherwise, stroll along until you arrive.

And what did you do?

Yesterday I was reading the late (the newly late) Michel Tournier (for a commissioned article), interspersed with poems by Robert Walser and Rubén Darío. I ended up writing a

Chandelier! Angels! Demons!

A brand new poem is up: "Landscape with Icefall" at Autumn Sky Poetry.

* * *

If the link doesn't work (something is amiss for some people 

(but not for many others, as I'm getting comments on the poem elsewhere), 

try putting in the address in the address bar manually:

https://autumnskypoetrydaily.com/2016...

Or else use your search engine.

2016, so far

“Life isn't all fricasseed frogs and eel pie.” --Puddleglum, in The Silver Chair

At Mezzo Cammin

Again I'm in one of my very favorite online 'zines, Mezzo Cammin, edited by poet Kim Bridgford. Mezzo Cammin is home to formal poems by women. Here is a taste--titles and opening lines. To see more, click and leap here.
Notes on the poems: 
The poem about Carolyn Wyeth (one of Andrew Wyeth's daughters) was written after seeing a Wyeth family show at the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown. Until

Requiescat in pace

The book I dedicated to her.
Catherwood (Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 1996)

I'm not much on mentioning deaths that matter to me in a public way, but I want to pay a last tribute to Nancy Potts Coward, the most important teacher in my life. My English teacher for three classes in high school, and Composition teacher for three, she always encouraged me, had an enormous faith in my abilities as a

Notes on day one, 2016

Heard fireworks and went to bed. Woke up. Wrote one new poem. Read some Robert Walser. Had one acceptance of a longish poem. Devoured (with help) one mighty batch of homemade donuts. One major feast (the second in 24 hours) was cooked by somebody else* and eaten by all. Washed dishes, cleaned mess: done. In a lull or two, frittered on Facebook, which I must say is far more talky than my blog.

You Asked, no. 3: Luisa's Ode

A FEW POSTS FOR LUISA

I promised myself that some time between last night's feast and this morning's homemade doughnuts or this afternoon's New Year's Day feast, I would begin to write about Luisa Igloria's poems in Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser. So now, while the red wine is soaking out of the giant tablecloth and the guests are occupied, I will take a few minutes to share a

Brazil on Maze of Blood

Suzanne Brazil reviews Maze of Blood at blogcritics.org. Opening paragraph:

Named as one of their Favorite Books of 2015 at Books and Culture Magazine, Maze of Blood (Mercer University Press, 2015), is a visceral shot to the senses and a fine filament tugging at the imagination that examines the results of thwarted dreams and desires in the life of a young writer. Set in rural Texas in the

The knitting Madonna--

Eric Gill, Madonna and child and angel, 1916
Woodblock on paper
At the Tate and other collections
Merry Christmas!

Eve light at 2:00 a.m.

Here's a Christmas poem from a little collection of poems at At Length, all drawn from the manuscript of The Book of the Red King. Fool says, Be merry!


THE CHRISTMAS BONFIRE

Bewitched, the Fool is watching acanthus
And oak–the bristling leaves of Christmas flame–
When the Royal Alchemist empties salts
From bags and bottles, raising up chartreuse
And emerald and yellow, orange-red,
Like a