​risa denenberg, poet

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a ​slight ​faith

A Return to Blogging  .... just not here.

12/31/2017

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I am joining with a gaggle of poets in committing to a weekly blog in 2018. I am grateful to this project, which was spearheaded by Donna Vorreyer and Kelli Agodon. Instead of posting blogs here,
​
I will be posting my blog at ​risaden.wordpress.com/.

Come on over! And enjoy these luscious blogger while you are at it. 

Beth Adams – http://www.cassandrapages.com
Teresa Hichens Ballard – http://teballard.blogspot.com/
Sandra Beasley – http://sbeasley.blogspot.com
Carolee Bennett – https://gooduniversenextdoor.com/
Mary Biddinger – wordcage.blogspot.com/ 
Andrea Blythe – http://www.andreablythe.com
Dave Bonta –  http://vianegativa.us
Jim Brock  http://picturesthatgotsmall.blogspot.com 
James Brush http://coyotemercury.com
Angela T Carr   https://angelatcarr.wordpress.com/
Patricia Caspers  http://www.patriciacaspers.com/
I. F. Caton – http://analogverse.blogspot.com/
Grant Clauser http://www.uniambic.com
Kevin Connor – https://ordinaryaveragethoughts.wordpress.com/
Jared Conti –  http://www.theoracularbeard.com 
Josephine Corcoran – http://www.josephinecorcoran.org
Jill Crammond   https://jillypoet.wordpress.com/  
Jenelle D’Alessandro – http://www.borderandgreetme.com
Laura E. Davis – http://www.dearouterspace.com/
Kate Debolt – http://www.katedebolt.net/blog/
Heather Derr-Smith – ferhext.com/   
Risa Denenberg – https://risadenenberg.weebly.com/blog
Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow  http://cschwartzbergedlow.blogspot.com
Andrew Eickstead http://www.unleashingthewordhoard.com 
Lou Faber – https://anoldwriter.com
Jeannine Hall Gailey  – webbish6.com 
Gail Goepfert – gailgoepfert.com
Erica Goss http://ericagoss.com
Uma Gowrishankar – https://umagowrishankar.wordpress.com/
Sarah Kain Gutowski – mimsyandoutgrabe.blogspot.com
Erin Hollowell – http://www.beingpoetry.net . T
Trish Hopkinson  https://trishhopkinson.com/
Jennifer Hudgens  https://jenniferelhudgens.wordpress.com
Catherine Hume: https://catherinehume.wordpress.com/
Crystal Ignatowski – http://somehiatus.tumblr.com/
MJ Iuppa – http://mjiuppa.blogspot.com/
Charles Jensen – https://charles-jensen.com/kinemapoetics-blog/
JJS  https://thisembodiedcondition.wordpress.com
Jill McCabe Johnson  http://jillmccabejohnson.com/blog-chanson-daventure.html
Collin Kelley  http://www.collinkelley.blogspot.com
Kathleen Kirk https://kathleenkirkpoetry.blogspot.com/
Anita Olivia Koester – https://www.forkandpage.com/
Lakshmi – thiswinterheart.tumblr.com 
Courtney LeBlanc – wordperv.com   
Lorena P Matejowsky   https://nothingbutblueskies.wordpress.com/   
Marilyn McCabe OWrite.MarilynonaRoll.wordpress.com
Ann Michael – www.annemichael.wordpress.com
Amy Miller – http://writers-island.blogspot.com/
James Moore – jameswmoore.wordpress.com   
LouAnn Sheperd Muhm – https://louannmuhm.com/
January Gill O’Neill  – http://poetmom.blogspot.com .  
Shawnte Orion  http://batteredhive.blogspot.com/
Ren Powell http://renpowell.com/blog/
Bethany Reid http://www.bethanyareid.com/ 
Susan Rich – http://thealchemistskitchen.blogspot.com .
Lee Ann Roripaugh https://runningbrush.wordpress.com/
Sarah Russell – https://sarahrussellpoetry.net
Jennifer Saunders  http://www.magpiedays.com
Carl Setzer – https://questionsall.net
Martha Silano: http://bluepositive.blogspot.com/
Kim Bailey Spradlin – www.kimbaileydeal.net
Bonnie Staiger –https://bonniestaiger.com/
Rosemary Starace https://thresholdview.wordpress.com/
Hannah Stephenson – http://thestorialist.com
Stephanie Lane Sutton athenasleepsin.wordpress.com
Christine Swint –  https://balancedonedge.blog/   
Carey Taylor –https://careyleetaylor.com.
Dylan Tweney – http://dylan20.tumblr.com/
Michael Allyn Wells: http://stickpoetsuperhero.blogspot.com/
Lesley Wheeler  Lesleywheeler.org
Allyson Whipple  http://allysonmwhipple.com

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Sunday Without Poem

2/21/2016

5 Comments

 
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I've only written a few poems over the past few months, and I seem to be  floundering, waiting for someone to publish my current manuscript, Slight Faith,  and not quite sure what I want to write  next. I'm at a  threshold. My writing needs to go in a new direction. It's a frustrating feeling. 

 I've never been able to work  with "poetry prompts" from others, I suppose because they track into what another poet is fascinated by, but don't evolve  from the deepest part of my own being. I'm always having interesting conversations with myself, but often I forget to write down my thoughts, and too often, they disappear.  

But  the other day, I made a list of things that do fascinate me, that I spend time thinking about.   Perhaps it's a start. 

The Urban Death Project 
suicide notes, particular Jumpers
earthquakes
heroin addiction/ effect on my community
Cosmology: constellations, seyfirt galaxies, singularities,  gravitational waves
Dementia, amnesia, failures of memory




5 Comments

Yet Another Sunday 

2/14/2016

1 Comment

 
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Last week, I didn't post a Sunday blog.
Some days, I feel like I have nothing more to say.
I've begun to wonder why I'm  doing this at all. 
Gazing through  gray glass at white snow. 
​Every part of me is cold. 
Looks like The Februaries  got a hold on me. 

1 Comment

Another Sunday Morning

1/31/2016

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​as another Sunday morning passes
another January is dispatched
and another moment is squandered
which offers another chance to practice courage
​or another instance to lose faith



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Sunday Morning Consolation

1/24/2016

1 Comment

 
​Consolation
 
The way you curl into a poem, 
bidding its shell to your mollusk,
storm of sea blowing in your ear,
inexpressible pain expressed.

1 Comment

Sunday Morning Muse with Bread

1/17/2016

1 Comment

 
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Bread 
 
I’m not hungry
but I want bread,
the crust and batting of bread
in my mouth, silk of butter
on my tongue.
 
I don’t need the body,
just the spirit, to fill this hollow
made of teeth
with the manna of its ever-
readiness to console. 

1 Comment

Sunday Morning with Bo

1/10/2016

3 Comments

 
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Picture
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3 Comments

Dear New Year

1/3/2016

2 Comments

 
​dear new year,
 
bring it on, bring rain, bring snow, bring cerulean
bring quakes, bring tornadoes, bring cyclones, beget heat waves
bite frost, wave flags, hitchhike, thumbs up, thumbelina, trump the dealer
shoot up, steal,  kill, lie,  fuck
make sorry, make babies, make pecan pie, make me
run backwards, skip ahead, jump the broomstick
stand still for chrisake, for a minute, for the hell of it
nice work if you can get it, remain silent, remain steady, remain flush, run on empty
meditate, don’t be late, shut the gate, hesitate, just wait a minute
subjugate, fluctuate, conjugate, fight the power
pray away fear, eat fear, forget the past, be present
pay your dues, pay your way, pay check, pay pal
bring it on: diwali, ashura, tisha b’av, year of red monkey
don’t mind, eat dogs, drown cats, regard aardvarks, send missiles, stream podcasts, cast the first stone
have a heart, have a biscuit, have the nervous energy of a flea
be a sport, be gentle, be smart, be a do-bee
be busy, but not too busy, a time for anything, brick-a-brac, “bracket that”
break a leg, break a sweat, bemoan your fate, have a date
and everything else, possibilities, more war, more dead black boys, less compassion
beer belly,  sugar-pie, don’t cry
think of what you’re missing
smoke crack, shoot heroin, be my heroine
make a promise, make a wish, make hay
don’t think twice, blink and you’ll be toast

2 Comments

Sunday Morning List: Some Loved Books Read in 2015

12/27/2015

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POETRY (in no particular order)

  • Ossuaries- Dionne Brand
  • The New Testament- Jericho Brown
  • Like a Beggar- Ellen Bass
  • Our Andromeda- Brenda Shaughnessy
  • The Road to Emmaus- Spencer Reece
  •  Oracle- Cate Marvin
  • Voluntary Servitude- Mark Wunderlich
  • Digest- Gregory Pardlo
  • ​Prelude to Bruise - Saeed Jones
  • The Burn Poems-  Lynn Strongin
  • Marry and   Burn- Rachel Rose
  • On Loving a Saudi Girl- Carina Yun
  • Don't go Back to Sleep- Timothy Liu
  • Hum- Jamaal May
  • The Last Two Seconds-  Mary Jo Bang
  • The Lillian Trilogy- Mary Meriam
  • The Redshifting Web- Arthur Sze
  • Scattered at Sea-  Amy Gerstler
  • Awake- Darianne Laux
  • ​landscape/heartbreak- Michelle Penaloza
  • [insert] boy- Danez Smith
  • Desire- Frank Bedart
  • Origami Dove- Susan Musgrave
  • Last Psalm at Sea Level-  Meg Day
  • Grayling- Jennifer Browne Lawrence
  • A Saving Grace- Lorna Crozier
  • In Broken Latin- Annette Spaulding Convey
  • Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire- Brenda Hillman
  • Slant Six- Erin Belieu
  • Wild Gratitude- Edward Hirsch
  • Duende- Tracy Smith
  • First Course in Turbulence- Dean Young

Next week: Fiction










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Sunday Morning Countdown 

12/20/2015

0 Comments

 
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Since Thanksgiving, I've been counting the days  until the solstice, that is, until we start to go back into the light.  For several months each year,   I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. My mood hovers on a ledge over a deep ravine.  When the moon is new, and blustery winds bring slant storms, I knuckle the steering wheel as my aging eyes try to make out white lines on the road. Lights, dotted along the road, cheer me through darkness and rain, the simple grub of this season on the Olympic Peninsula.  Then, just  as I arrive at the clinic, these lit trees greet me.

After Tuesday, it will reverse and I will sigh  a modicum of relief, another year opens the window and welcomes the light. I can still drive, so I can still work. No  guarantees  for next  year, but it appears that I'm willing to hold on. 

​My reading recommendation for Christmas:  The Road to Emmaus, by Spencer Reece.  It redeemed the season for me.  Read the title poem. Buy the book,  with its cover photo by Thomas Sayers Ellis.  It's a gem.  Trust me on this one. 

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Risa Denenberg

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