This small ephemeral doesn’t reference
Renaissance paintings or a minor Greek goddess,
but pops up each spring to nudge us
about what is meant by beauty: a short-lived
flower that echoes the sky, the oxymoron
of its silent bells. And then there’s your skin,
alive again to the caress of the warm
west wind. . . .
—
Barbara Crooker is author of ten full-length books of poetry, including Some Glad Morning, Pitt Poetry Series, longlisted for the Julie Suk Award from Jacar Press, The Book of Kells, which won the Best Poetry Book of 2019 Award from Poetry by the Sea, and Slow Wreckage (Grayson Books, 2024). Her other awards include: Grammy Spoken Word Finalist, the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, and the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award.
