Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A poet to watch: Andrea Cohen

I've been following Andrea Cohen's work since I heard her read this summer from her new book Long Division. She's worth a read. Here's one of her poems that showed up in the recent edition of Diode
Click through the link to see more of Andrea's work.

Self Portrait with Forgiveness
by Andrea Cohen 

Maybe forgiveness could take
the shape of a fish

I place in the heel
of a clear, plastic shoe

filled with water.
There would be one

fish in each shoe. They
would be in love—

with each other, not me—
but eternally divided.

They would be brilliant
and orange and I

would walk around on them
all day and every night

they’d tuck me in,
repeating: it’s alright, it’s alright.