two poems in an anthology

The first time i was ever published, the editor selected two of the three poems i submitted. (The editor is also my brother. I’m almost certain our relationship didn’t impact his decision.)

The anthology is available to order here. I can’t link to the poems themselves, but the book is beautiful and wonderful and well worth your seventeen dollars. They’re both about Mary Oliver, whose work is part of the Biblical canon, as far as i’m concerned. I think they’re both accessible if you’re not familiar with her work, but this poem is definitely helpful for “wild goose chase”.

They are both poems of faith. Specifically, they are both poems wherein i am working out my feelings on holiness, the afterlife, goodness, prayer, sainthood, and salvation.

In the first year of my MFA program, we read Dante, and during one of our discussions, the lecturer asked us who our Virgil would be. Mine is Mary Oliver. So much of what i know and believe about poetry, religion, nature, and how to be a human, i have learned through her work. I hope my own work does her justice.