Marilyn Nelson
Whether writing Petrachan sonnets or the eleven syllable Leben, Marilyn Nelson illuminates the outerworld with observation and experience— and her inner world is the beneficiary of that rich life. —Grace Cavalieri
Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of some twenty poetry books and chapbooks for adults, young adults, and children. Many of her collections have won awards, and her poems have been widely anthologized. Nelson’s honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship (in the South of France!), a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Ruth Lilly Award, the Robert Frost Medal, and the Wallace Stevens Award. She has served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, as Poet-in-Residence of the Poets Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and as the Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut. The mother of two and grandmother of two, she lives quietly, retired from a long career in academia, with her daughter and three cats.
So Busy
I wonder what my left brain has been up to
during all these years of virtual silence,
while my me-brain was so busy day-dreaming.
The Buster Brown Man
Back in my day, when you outgrew your school shoes,
you stood sole by sole on your mortality
while a white Buster Brown man X-rayed your toes.
Well, Duh
This tragicomedy I’ve been starring in
for pretty much all of my natural-born life:
for a long time I thought it was about me.
Nor Music
What we’re leaving behind will apparently
just be a planet like all of the others,
where sight, sound, change, time, and truth do not exist.
Only A Bug
Seventy percent of Earth’s invertebrates
went extinct in the Twentieth Century.
And not from a climate-changing asteroid.
The Old Sisters
Who the hell you think you are, Miss Jesus Christ?
You’re just somebody else that thinks with their butt!
Acting like yours is the only universe.
© Marilyn Nelson, all rights reserved.
Comments
Dan Murano
Love these windows on the world. 🌏
Mary Morris (not verified)
What wonderful, true poems!!!
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