Kimberly O'Connor

Hello!

Today I wanted to offer a gift for smaller donations to my 30/30 poems in in honor of the short poem I wrote for yesterday. It’s written as a short note to doubt.

“To Doubt” begins

I held you like a child
gripping a balloon’s grubby string…

and I’ll send you to read the rest here.

I wrote this poem on Sunday after spending some time with Wendell Berry’s book The Country of Marriage. After a semester (really, six semesters in total) of talking with my Mines students about the ethics of our relationship with the land and animals, this poem from the book stood out as a gem.

Prayer After Eating

I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of motion and of thought.
My I be worthy of my meat.

How amazing to say so much and so beautifully in six lines.

Another short poem I love is Russell Edson’s “With Sincerest Regrets,” which I posted here years ago. Also, Phillip Larkin’s “Days…” and if you don’t know them, check out “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams and “In a Station at the Metro” by Ezra Pound.

Thinking about short poems inspired me to create another gift option for donations to my project over at Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project: if you give a donation of $25 or more, I’ll send you a poetry postcard this summer. In other words, sometime this summer, I’ll choose a postcard for you and compose a short poem on the back, and snail-mail it to your home. Donate $25+ here and send me an email at oconnor_kimberly@yahoo.com letting me know where to mail your postcard.

Also, for donations of $150 or more, you can give me a topic or a title of a poem you want me to write, and I’ll write it!

Thanks for reading–wishing you a happy day.

Photo by Devon Divine on Unsplash