April 24, 2019
Jane, watch me close this time, the scarlet
    folds of this cape, how the drapes velvet

a man, crush his musk to dandelions
    and black his lashes to strings of silk.

And I can wide your eyes to the rough
    reverse, leather holsters and sun-bleached boots

that coarse my hair to a tangle of red,
    a thick of fish a man might grow

and almost the shadow of a beard
    along my neck. Jane, it is not so intricate

as your sketches. Changing your dress is easier
    than striking your darkest dreams down in coal.

And while we’re talking, I can teach you
    the trick of your attic twin, how a cutlass paints

with skin and red ink, how to hang a scalp
    as lightly as you daub the meager perfume

on your lily neck. Before you fall asleep
    in that culvert, sweat of fever a-growing

beneath your bonnet, remember
    that you’ve never swallowed coral or prayed

to the songs of whales and young Adele
    seems sharp enough to me, whatever jabs

he throws her way, I’d love to see her swing
    a dagger across his brow as swift as a step

in a reel. Let’s all to sea—you, the twin, the girl
    and me—and build a blue-walled manor house
with chandeliers of gold and aristocratic bone.
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"[Gregg's] poems are unusual in the way they combine what feels timeless and universal with what also feels intimate and peculiarly personal, all from a distinctly woman’s point of view." 

via Women's Voices for Change
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I took an introductory poetry writing class in my sophomore year of college because my schedule allowed it; I had mostly downed novels up until then. We were not assigned this Dickinson poem in class, and I can’t remember exactly how I came upon it. I was familiar with many of her famous poems, but something about this one made me feel both wonderfully repaired (from what? why?) and restive.
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PATRICIA CLEARY MILLER AWARD

Deadline May 20, 2019. New Letters invites submissions to the Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry. Winners receive $2,500 + publication. For guidelines, visit New Letters or send an S.A.S.E. to New Letters, 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110.
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