Bonnie G Roberts's Writings
View Bonnie’s Books | Read Bonnie’s other writings below.
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Poem
Mar.06.2013
Poetic Bond II, edited by Trevor Maynard, an international anthology
In Lieu of Flowers
I have five wraths.
One is blue. It is as blue
as large stones of western turquoise.
It is a well-strung wrath.
One is red. In a child’s nightmare, it is the bright red cat
that eats a pink baby mouse, still blind and hairless.
One is pure white. It is deceitful and stinks more than any other...
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Poem
Jul.20.2011
Dances in Straw with a Two-Headed Calf, Elk River Review Press, 2002
When I swim in the sound,I come out stained by tannin.
I try to rub it off my skinor bleach myself by sitting in darknessbelow deck,but now that I have dived in,I will always be like this.
I wish I could grow fondof bobbing, steeping,but there is skim on the water, and scum;I have no sugar, can't see the bottom.Something oily and rareis touching me, even as I...
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Poem
Jul.15.2011
Limestone Dust Poetry Anthology, 2004
"It Is Better to Marry Than to Burn," Said Paul
At lunch,the love letter inside your pocketsmolders.Wild blue flamescrackleelectricity to consumethe finer threads,then a burst of orange or yellowon the thicker weave.
The fire department's report of spontaneous combustionnever to be believed by international scientists,or the city council.Mothers...
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Poem
Jul.09.2011
To Hide in the Light, poetry collection
In Fayettville, They Painted the Prison Green, and One Prisoner Said He Could Stand It
Something fragile keeps me here --unraveling petals,leaves, the bending stems of Anne's lace.Is God trumpet vine on the stone wall painted brown?Or chick pea root, sprouts and watercress,the most constant loves I've ever known?After the earth collides with a planetor...
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Poem
Jul.09.2011
The Kentucky Poetry Review, 1988 circa; republished in To Hide in the Light, 1998
My Gypsy in Winter
I
When I was an orphan child in winter,it was the kind gypsy womanwho--from the side of the wet road--picked me up in her brocadedand heavily scented arms,rosemary and Eau de Paris,and held my small body and soul together,as best she could.She was of middle years, with heavy thighs,fleshy in the face,desperate-smart in the eyes.She cinched her...
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Poem
Jul.08.2011
To Hide in the Light, 1998
What Is This Bittersweet?
If you live only on the bitter,your eyes will be hard.No one will want you.A corpse laid out alive,a hammer,a mirror,painted black.You will want no one,only strike out with impotence.
If you live only by the sweet,the bitter will not exactly touch you.It will annihilate you early on.They will find you,a smiling vegetablein a nursing...
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Poem
Jul.05.2011
Celebrate Alabama Poets (Anthology), Homewood Library, Birmingham, Al; To Hide in the Light, Elk River Review, 1998
Blue Milk
I
The wagon is the bluest blue I have ever seen.More blue than Daddy's eyes, which were milky blue.More blue than blueberries Daddy grewor blue herons we approached at seaor chromis fish,more blue than columbine.More blue even than the winter Mediterraneanby which the wagon waits.An empty, painted wagon,its blue tongue hanging out,no where to go yet...
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Poem
Jul.05.2011
Read at the Kennedy Arts Center, Florence, AL, 1997; To Hide in the Light, 1998
On Reading Metamorphosis in a Southern Dell: a Fantasy for Kafka
In my next existence, I will be a farmer's wife.In the morning, I will go into the cool cellarto select potatoes for peeling.I will not mind the dirt everywhere.I will have chosen dirt as a way of life.I will not mind the potatoes that are black--I will toss them out.I will wear a red apron all...
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Poem
Jul.02.2011
Dances in Straw with a Two-Headed Calf, Elk River Review, 2002
Life Is a Hard Proposition at Best
If the wolf does not eat my head,it will eat my feet.
If the mountain does not fall on me,I will die in its snows.
If the fish does not decay,it will dry up, harden to rock, in the sun.
If the whites of my eyes do not yellow,they will redden, grow brittle.
If I do not paint my face for the tribal dance, and bloody war of...
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Poem
Jun.29.2011
To Hide in the Light, Elk River Review; previously in Yellow Silk, the magazine; Yellow Silk, the anthology
My Lovemaking Is Autobiographical
I draw my memories on his body.The red hibiscus pollen on his cheek,the creaking rope swingon his belly,the August Ferris wheel on his groin.My paints are soft and thicklike the dust from Nate's Laneand the layer of fall leaves on the front porchof the haunted house.I even spread some between his toes.And he sees my mother...
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When I first came across Bonnie Roberts's work . . . I was absolutely, immediately exhilarated with the same kind of exhilaration as when I first opened Neruda, a sense of a whole landscape singing through a person. ”
—Paula Meehan, Irish poet, her comment on the back of Roberts's first collection, To Hide in the Light.
About Bonnie
Both my parents were teachers, who met at the University of AL. My mother eventually taught 2nd-grade reading; my father taught math, history, and political science. To improve his income, he later became a seller of insurance, not something he liked, but...
Connections
Causes Bonnie Roberts Supports
The Southern Poverty Law Center, The National Resource Defense Council, The ACLU, Doctors without Borders, Save Darfur
Bonnie’s Favorite Books
To Kill a Mockingbird; The Poisonwood Bible; The Star Thrower; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Holy the Firm; One Hundred Years of Solitude; Leaves of Grass; Les...