Nefertiti on the Astral: November Butterfly Prompt 11

We had some eerie moments when the wire of the mic became somehow attenuated (overheated?) during the recording of a second poem (Nefertiti on the Astral) and in playback we heard a long drawn out garbled voice, as if we were channeling The…

Jeanne d’Arc, or It Goes On Still Inside Certain Girls: November Butterfly Poetry Prompt 10

“No excuse to hide, or your daughter will,” is a line I cut (for its baldness) and then kept splicing back in to a Joan of Arc poem….As a poet I’m cursed with that childlike belief in the incantatory strength of words to push sunward…

Ophelia, Circling Possible Futures and Alternate Endings: November Butterfly Poetry Prompt 9

Another image that lived in my home for several years quietly speaking to my subconscious was a painting titled The Rescue of Ophelia (by Christine DeCamp). A massive leaf borders the body of the floating Ophelia as she cradles in her arms an…

Thumbelina Weighs Her Options: November Butterfly Poetry Prompt 8

 I’m surprised to find, in writing the poem, that girl, mother, and flower coexist in the imagination alongside an innocence I thought lost, beside a self I thought irreparably fractured.  Thumbelina: Innocence Found (Feral Mom, Feral…

She Dressed in a Hurry, for Lady Diana: November Butterfly Prompt 7

Maureen’s husband—just like mine would have done--drifted into the bedroom once or twice, apologizing profusely, looking for a raincoat, a hat, and yet the poem held on, more or less down on the page by the end of the two hours, born amidst…

Nabokov: Lolita wake! November Butterfly Poetry Prompt 6

In the poem Nabokov (forthcoming in November Butterfly, Saddle Road Press, November 1, 2014), Prufrock from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Nabokov’s Lolita, Sky Chief’s Daughter from the Trickster Tale Raven and Gretl from the fairytale…