for Virginia Woolf
Indeed, it would be lovely:
Bent over a patch,
hands deep in dirt,
sun making its progress
across our backs,
a broad-brimmed hat
with blue ribbons trailing.
And then we could just sit back.
No wading out. No notes on the mantel.
We’d feel a flutter in the chest.
The seeds would scatter.
The spade abandoned in the grass.
And we wouldn’t see the lacey heads peek up.
But off we’d go. We’d go.
©
's poems and essays have previously appeared in such journals as Arts and Letters, Borderlands, and Diagram, and several of her poems were recently included in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume II. She has received honors in several writing contests, including first place in Sunstone's 2011 Eugene England Memorial Personal Essay Contest, the 2008 Joan Johnson Award in poetry, and the 2004–2005 Parley A. and Ruth J. Christensen Award. She completed a PhD in English and Creative Writing at the University of Southern Mississippi, then moved to the Boston area, where she works as a development editor at Bedford/St Martin's Press.
We’ve published two more poems by Earley: “Pan of Ice” and “Shirley Temple Grooms Ivan Pavlov.”
