It’s a one-to-one affair, a very personal exchange, selling a poetry book of your own. I like that it is so personal, that you have to think about the work and that you’re sharing it with each person who gets one. It’s a way of making new friends, reconnecting with distant friends, and having a silent conversation with readers. One of the things that dazzles me is when someone tells me about a poem I…
I’m happy today to have my poem, “On the Rocks, Cliffs, and Tidepools” up in the current issue of About Place, “a literary journal published by the Black Earth Institute dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society.” My poem is in the current issue “The Future of Water,” alongside poems from Susan Terris, Alex Cigale, Alan Kleiman, Ann E. Michael, Jeff Gundy, and too many more to name. I’m happily…
I’m thrilled to have my new book, Gods of Water and Air, reviewed at Pirene’s Fountain — and in glowing terms! — by publisher/editor/poet Ami Kaye. Ami is the author of What Hands Can Hold and other books. I love the way she summed up my book: “Dacus gives us poetry she has plucked from the fire of her imagination and heart, imparting warmth and sustenance to its readers, reminding us what is sacred in…
It’s a delicious Monday for poets. Today is the official launch of the First Water, the first print anthology from Pirene’s Fountain. I’m lucky to have a poem in it, alongside poets I much admire, such as Kim Addonizio, Jane Hirshfield, Paul Hostovsky, Dorianne Laux, and J.P. Dancing Bear. Thank you, Ami Kaye and the Glass Pyre Press/Pirene’s Fountain staff. Can’t wait to get my copy! The evolution of this wonderful online journal into a…
I’m thrilled to be a part of this great new collection, First Water, from Pirene’s Fountain. Publisher Ami Kaye selected a poem from my book Gods of Water and Air. The poem is “Chopin Reigns.” You’ll have to get the anthology to see it! Visit https://racheldacus.net for more information and writing by Rachel Dacus.
A lot of people who have read my new book, Gods of Water and Air, have remarked on my bravery in sharing personal and intimate moments of my life. It has surprised me, this compliment, because I think “That’s just what writers do–they talk about their interior dimensions and experiences in a way we normally don’t in conversation.” It got me thinking, and then I found a wonderful essay on this topic. Marie Gauthier, in…
I love the new neurological research. It’s turning up all sorts of things that make the yellow journalists look like media whore sleazebags with their terrible-terrible news. Here’s a new one that caught my fancy — reading poetry may activate your brain more than reading prose. A study at The University of Exeter showed through MRI monitoring that brains are differently activated when reading poetry than when reading prose: specifically, brains are more lively reading…
–> I’m going to have to create a chapbook of bird poems, I think. Lesser and greater egrets at the local creek, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, mourning doves, crows all have made their way into my work. If I count up the number of bird poems I’ve written it probably could form a whole book! This one is from my new book, Gods of Water and Air, available at Amazon. As Yearning Is Red Sudden as…
Diane Lockward’s wonderful book to jump-start your creative process, The Crafty Poet, has had a great mention in Poets & Writers as one of the “best books for writers.” I’m pleased to have a poem of mine included in this juicy craft collection, “Worst,” under the Prompt: Missing You. Diane’s prompts and tips are richly illustrated with poems from so many poets I love I can’t begin to name them all. I especially love the…
On this All Souls Day, I offer a poem about one kind of afterlife (there are many) from Gods of Water and Air: Smiling Back from the Afterlife I meet my father for breakfast in some life after Alzheimer’s. He smiles: Are you still my daughter? The first sick joke from the afterlife begins on the phone. I say, I regret that I am. His skull knobbed yellow and blue, bruised from an unremembered mishap,…