Tag: poems

Allison Field Bell’s expansive and intimate poetry collection, ‘All That Blue’

‘… the word blue encompasses both the mental and physical spaces we inhabit.’

There’s something beautifully expansive about multi-genre writer Allison Field Bell‘s new poetry collection, All That Blue (now available from Finishing Line Press). The title itself evokes images of expansiveness: an unending dome of blue sky above, the glimmering cobalt of the ocean, the pristine turquoise of a county pond.

Juxtaposing these visions of expansiveness, though, are raw, intimate, and up-close expressions of life in all its messiness and unpredictability–the teeming life bubbling up from beneath. The 43 free-verse poems of All That Blue, Allison’s first collection of poetry, present this juxtaposition brilliantly.

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Friday Five: recent reads, watches, and listens

Happy Friday, readers! Here are five things that have captured my attention lately:

  1. Reading: My friend and neighbor Agnes Vojta‘s latest collection of poetry, Love Song to Gravity. Agnes is a poet and a physicist, so the title of this collection makes sense. In Love Song…, Agnes explores grief, nature, the change of seasons, time, love, and many other things that make us human and connect us to each other and to our world, including, of course, gravity. You can read some selected poems from this book, and listen to Agnes read some of them. You can also read, right here on this website, my Friday Five Q&A with Agnes from March 2024.
  2. Watching: A great, short (under 10-minute) TED Talk titled “A meditation on Rumi and the power of poetry,” delivered in December 2023 by Iranian-born author and translator Leili Anvar. In this talk, she reflects on the poetry of Rumi, a 13th-century mystic Persian poet, and the power of poetry and language.
  3. Listening to: This podcast interview by organizational psychologist Adam Grant with the very funny Ed Helms (who played Andy Bernard, aka the ‘Nard Dog, on The Office) about learning through failure, with mentions of Helms’ book about failure, SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups. Helms cut his teeth as a standup comedian, and if there’s any occupation that submits itself to failure and humiliation more regularly than a writer, it’s that of standup comedian. I recommend every writer give this a listen.
  4. Reading: Debuting at 70, an essay by Ruth Bonapace, who published her debut novel, The Bulgarian Training Manual, last year as a newly minted septuagenarian. (I’m closing in on age 65, so there’s hope for me yet.)
  5. Reading and listening to: Handmade Playlist Box Set: The Complete Works of Summer, a nostalgia-inducing essay by writer and music lover Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Wonder Boys, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, etc.) on the music of summer seasons past and present, complete with Spotify playlists. (This reminds me: years ago, before I moved on to Apple Music for much of my listening, I put together a summer playlist of my own, called #summersongs, and made it open for collaboration, so if you want to add to it, feel free to do so. Or just have a listen if you’re so inclined, and marvel at my impeccable taste in music.)

Have a good weekend, and try to enjoy these waning days of summer.

Top image: Me poolside with my copy of Agnes Vojta’s latest collection of poems, Love Song to Gravity.