BOA Blog

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. In the spirit of civic engagement and the American ideal of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, this week's poem is a selection from Christian Barter's Bye-Bye Land: a book-length symphonic poem on the hopes and fears of America at the dawn of the 21st century. A selection from "Part I: The Warm Land" They strolled the campuses. They stood in chapels. They stood in chapels, under the huge stained glass. They drifted in silent, powerful automobiles....

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Craig Morgan Teicher's Lenore Marshall Award-winning collection, The Trembling Answers.  Self-Portrait as the Man I’ve Become When did I grow so fastidious? When did I learnto use spreadsheets? There was no particular day; it happened in my thirties, that mostly pleasant pathbetween youth and whatever’s up next.Two deer appeared suddenly in our backyard today; I practically yelledeveryone to the window. They ateleaves from our rented treesand soon moved on. Simonewas amazed, Cal smiled. When did the deer...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from The Smoke of Horses by Charles Rafferty, which was recently named as a finalist for the 2018 Connecticut Book Awards. Reflection I followed a creek’s quarter mile of crashing over rocks and algae andthe blurred darting of minnows, until it paused at a pool so well-stoppedit looked more like air than water: a sky of contrails, clod-shaped hunksof cumulus. I stepped in and saw the presence of my body disrupt theheavens at my feet. I couldn’t find the...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Dresses from the Old Country by Laura Read. When You Have Lived a Long Time in One Place things start to vanish. Like the old Newberry’swhere I used to buy earrings that lookedlike tacks, six pairs for a dollar, and thengo sit at the lunch counter with the old peopleeating patty melts and drinking black coffee.They stared in front of them like the womenon the bus with their plastic rain scarvesthat they took from their purses when the...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Holy Moly Carry Me by Erika Meitner. I’ll Remember You As You Were, Not As What You’ll Become If you are fearful, America, I can tell you I am too. I worry about my body—the way, lately, it marches itself over curbs and barriers, lingers in the streets as a form of resistance. The streets belong to no one and everyone and are a guide for motion, but we are so numerous there is no pavement left on which...