PUBLIC POETRY PROJECT
A celebration of poems to the people
The Delicate Boat
By Paul Martin
Paul Martin’s “The Delicate Boat” leaves few
who read it with the ability to look again at ribs, at the dip
of the abdomen, and not see the “delicate boat,” to
not recall this moving depiction of brotherhood and grief.
The River Bathers
By Elaine Terranova
Elaine Terranova’s “The River Bathers” purposely
buries its move toward a moral in the poem’s center, following
it only with oddity, certain detail cast in relief against an
uncertainty of feeling, and the oddity of a world newly understood.
Plink by Plink
By Constance Levy
Constance Levy’s “Plink by Plink” sounds like
the very place the poem describes. Every tick, drop, and rock,
each sound of icicle and liquid lingering, recreate the aural
reality of the cave.
Moon-Grief Utterance #2 (for SP)
By Sean Thomas Dougherty
Sean Thomas Dougherty’s “Moon-Grief Utterance #2
(for SP)” links the mystery of another world to breath,
to sadness coming from elsewhere to the ear of a lover. The imaginative
leap here makes the most of poetry’s compressed form.
Sisyphus
By Maxine Kumin
Maxine Kumin’s “Sisyphus” reminds us, vividly,
how the smallest incidental can make in us a burden
Maxine Kumin reads "Sisyphus" 2003 Poetry Advisory Committee: Bonnie MacEwan,
William Brockman, William Joyce, Gabriel Welsch, Steven Herb
2003 Poetry Selection Committee: Robin Becker, Harry Humes, Maurice
Kilwein Guevara
Poster Design and Artwork: Marla Jaksch, Erik Brandt