22 Oct “Grief” by Anne Elezabeth Pluto
listen while tuning
the guitar—I’m always sharp
but that suits my voice—I find
the grief in the bookcase—pull
out volumes I could give
away—put out on the sidewalk
in boxes—it should be that easy
sometimes I just walk from room
to room—thinking I have forgotten
something—and then—as if
pulled back by shiny objects—akin
to the crows across the street
I settle and read—a chapter
a poem—a map to find
my way back home.
About the Poet
Anne Elezabeth Pluto, a former Buffalo resident and University at Buffalo Ph.D, is Professor of Literature and Theatre at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, where she is the artistic director of the Oxford Street Players. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including her most recent “How Many Miles to Babylon” (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2023), in which this poem appears.
Pluto grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY before Brooklyn became a fashionable enclave for poets and artists. She is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company and was a member of the Worcester Shakespeare Company 2011 – 2016. She was a member of the Boston small press scene in the late 1980’s and is one of the founders and editors at Nixes Mate Review and Nixes Mate Books. Her books and chapbooks include “The Frog Princess” (White Pine Press (1985), “Lubbock Electric” (Argotist ebooks, 2012), “Benign Protection” (Cervena Barva Press , 2016), the edited print edition of “Lubbock Electric” (Nixes Mate Books, 2018), and the full-length collection “The Deepest Part of Dark” (Unlikely Stories Press, 2020).
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.