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HOW A POEM BEGINS

By Grace Cavalieri

It’s a little thing. Could be

the long o’s in Kosovo, or

a woman

alone in the street

after the hurricane

sweeping Honduras.

Perhaps we tell of the child

beneath the flood in New Orleans.

They say poetry is insignificant,

such a tiny voice

no one can hear.

That’s why we write of such

little things, insignificant things.
Added: Friday, July 15, 2016  /  From "Water on the Sun" (Bordighera Press, 2006). Used with permission.
Grace Cavalieri

Grace Cavalieri's newest book is WITH (Somondoco Press 2016). She's the author of several books and produced plays. The most recent play, "Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory." (Theatre for the New City, NYC 2012). She celebrates 39 years on public radio with "The Poet and The Poem" now recorded at The Library of Congress. Grace's career includes positions as a co-founder of WPFW-FM; after that, Assoc. Director for Children's Programming, PBS; and then a Senior Media Program Officer, NEH. She's the founder of two poetry presses in DC, still thriving, and is presently the poetry columnist for The Washington Independent Review of Books. Grace Cavalieri was awarded the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from WASH INDEP REVIEW. She received the George Garrett Award from AWP for Service to Literature, the Allen Ginsberg, Paterson Award, Bordighera and Columbia Poetry Awards, A Pen Fiction Award,  CPB's Silver Medal.

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