<\/p>\n

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Pat Lowery Collins is a poet, painter, and the author of many books for children and for young adults including the Reading Rainbow selection, I Am An Artist,<\/em> and the recent sequel, I Am a Dancer.<\/em> Her young adult novel in free verse, The Fattening Hut, <\/em>won the Boston Author\u2019s Club 2004 Julia Ward Howe Award and was a Book Sense Pick and ALA Amelia Bloomer choice.\u00a0 Her acclaimed historical novel, Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice,<\/em> appeared in 2009.<\/p>\n

A chapbook of her poems, The Quiet Woman Wakes Up Shouting, <\/em>is one in a series of chapbook originals published by Folly Cove Books.\u00a0\u00a0 The poems included here are from that volume.\u00a0 <\/em>Pat teaches in Lesley University\u2019s MFA program in creative writing and lives and works in Gloucester, MA.\u00a0 (www.patlowerycollins.com<\/u><\/a>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is time<\/p>\n

to harvest the light<\/p>\n

rinsing houses, beaches, and boats<\/p>\n

with fool\u2019s gold,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to intercept<\/p>\n

the pink stare of windows<\/p>\n

fastened upon<\/p>\n

the slipping<\/p>\n

face of the sun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the hour<\/p>\n

for the last tricks<\/p>\n

of a burning alchemist \u2013<\/p>\n

shells made of glass,<\/p>\n

sandcastles of bronze,<\/p>\n

this glistening spell<\/p>\n

as our part of the earth<\/p>\n

turns away. Owning little<\/p>\n

in which to collect fire<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

we use what we have \u2013<\/p>\n

the marrow of bone,<\/p>\n

the window of eye,<\/p>\n

an expandable heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Burial at Sea<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One younger than the other. Both<\/p>\n

very little girls. The older<\/p>\n

wants to trade her seashells,<\/p>\n

trick the smaller child<\/p>\n

into giving up the best ones<\/p>\n

from her plastic bag that leaks,<\/p>\n

tiny shoots of water spouting<\/p>\n

\u201cjust the way a boy pees,\u201d<\/p>\n

they agree. And they agree<\/p>\n

the bird they\u2019ve found is dead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The children gather loosestrife, plant<\/p>\n

short purple stalks that point into the sky<\/p>\n

and form a circle all around the carcass,<\/p>\n

the brittle bones and matted feathers<\/p>\n

of a herring gull, washed<\/p>\n

high by a moon tide.<\/p>\n

They pile up bits of driftwood,<\/p>\n

sea glass, small smooth stones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The older child has used<\/p>\n

the pearly lining of a mussel shell<\/p>\n

to decorate the cairn; the younger puts<\/p>\n

the periwinkle that she wouldn\u2019t trade<\/p>\n

beside the vacant eye. They sing,<\/p>\n

their small high voices drifting up and up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Pat Lowery Collins is a poet, painter, and the author of many books for children and for young adults including the Reading Rainbow selection, I Am An Artist, and the recent sequel, I Am a Dancer. Her young adult … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-47","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n