& The Midnight Heart Blog
I have been thinking and writing about the Welsh legend of Branwen recently, in this micro-chapbook out with the Poetry Annals, Blind Horse Elegy (cover image by Victoria Brookland), and in the title poem itself which was a runner up in the Hopper Poetry Prize. When I think of the story of Branwen, I think of [...]
The first time I had a miscarriage, it was "missed." Sometimes they call it a silent miscarriage, because there are no symptoms. The only time you find out is when you lie back to have the ultrasound, but instead of a baby, nothing is there. Though my body and mind missed the miscarriage when it [...]
I have always loved this quotation from Sylvia Plath’s Johnny Panic and The Bible of Dreams: “So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them." I love this box image. I’m sure that the image was very personal [...]
On the summer solstice two years ago, there was a big, beautiful supermoon. It was 2016 – pre-election, pre-Trump. That night, I woke up for no obvious reason, and downstairs I noticed a strange light coming through the glass doors. The moon was up, honey colored, clouds passing in long fingers across its face. I [...]
I always know when I have been stretching myself too thin with work and writing because I become Jane Craig in broadcast news. You know the scene: she finishes her phone conversation, sits quietly on the bed, and then cries long, loudly, noisily before going on with her day as usual. Who doesn't wish for [...]
I was thinking recently about parenting and writing again. This week has been a dizzy whirl of kids' activities at the end of semester. Yesterday, I went into Kindergarten, and did some activities with the kids for the end of year party. We were studying Hawaii, its culture, myths, and incredible geology. The children were [...]
[This talk was given on March 3rd 2018 at a talk for a Heforshe event at the Ohio State University.] I want to start by quoting a short poem by the British author Jane Commane. The poem is called ‘Landmarks’ and it describes the threat of violence in our everyday spaces, asks how or why [...]
I know I am not the first person to admire Kate Chopin's The Awakening. The book focuses on Edna Pontellier, a married woman, who through her friendship with a younger man discovers her gradually awakening sexuality and desire. Published in 1899, the book was ahead of its time, and Chopin's book was declared immoral by her [...]
'Swan' is out now in Australian Book Review. It's a poem that I worked on with the poet Joanna Klink at Kenyon College over the summer. I am very grateful to her for getting me to think about getting back to the sensuous kind of writing with which I began. 'Swan' is a poem about [...]
'Sonnet for the Hole in the Glass is out today at Rattle, and it is the Editor's Choice for the Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge. https://www.rattle.com/sonnet-for-the-hole-in-the-glass-by-zoe-brigley-thompson/
