On:

Spells inspired by Midsummer’s Nights Dream Love Medicine Yarrow blossom sparkles like the sun, rayed white flowers, spirit powers anoint sleeping lids with potion fine awakened at dawn, loves eyes meet mine. His heart, I snare, with yarrow fair More lustrous appears my hair, more alluring becomes my face, ardorContinue Reading

On:

as the crow-flowers tickle and the nettles prick her remembrances. she is a river of dream purpling the shadows of overhanging branches as, mermaid-like a while, she buoys herself up with flow and flight, no more the awkward baggage of a boy with clanking ghostly chains for brains. Kate Falvey’sContinue Reading

On:

Ever since the birth of Ophelia Those of us who sing aloud For no reason have garnered Strange looks from the silent But when the angel falls When the phoenix burns When the birth cry finally comes Lips have no recourse but parting After comes the quiet death The ash,Continue Reading

On:

Repeated lines are from Cordelia in King Lear by William Shakespeare Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. Ask Richard Nixon, “Who erased the tape?” Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. They’re often drowned by elemental tides while telling lies to make a clean escape. Time shall unfoldContinue Reading

On:

Who will believe thee, Isabel? ~ Angelo in Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare It is the fate of Woman tHat few blame a man if One seduces her. When her belly expands even due to rape, It’s true— some say she tempted the Lout untiL he gave in. SheContinue Reading

On:

Her ghost kept coming back to Hamlet maybe driving him mad as well who knows trailed by pale regret and her sad specter (haunted undersea dreams of the innocent drowned) his mist-thin love incapable of saving her but oh, her fair fey hair glistening, floating there lost love’s shudder risingContinue Reading

On:

The group of poems featured in Deep Overstock’s Shakespeare issue are part of a collection that developed as I read through the full catalogue of Shakespeare’s plays. The experience was a frustrating sensory thrill. I didn’t set out to focus on Shakespeare’s female characters; my favorite play is Coriolanus, inContinue Reading