I’ll be holding a book signing & reading of my new book of poetry “Breaking The Surface”, a collection of poems dedicated to Lake Katherine and all who love her. Here’s the details:

Date: Friday, August 27, 2010

Time: From 10am Until 12am (Reading At 10:30-11:00)

Place: Yawkee Hall in Hazelhurst, Wi

Book Signing & Reading Breaking The Surface is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

Read the full text of the 4 poems:
Looking for Perfection
Always Decisive
Today
Past and Future Tense

Breaking the Surface—4 Poems (video) is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

A feeble breeze
luffs the blind
like an impotent sail

August probes a tongue
at the edge of open
windows and doors

insistent cicadas
draw ragged lines on summer
and scrape at eardrums

inattentive
in the darkened bedroom
I surrender my head
to crossed arms
and the scent of old linen
beg for solitude and sleep

over the sound of lawn mowers
the opening of a car door
accompanies the silence
of a more familiar engine

he is home
and wants his dinner

©2006, Janet Taliaferro

“Summer Room” appeared in in Vol. 20 of “The Northern Virginia Review“

Summer Room is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

What I wanted was cheering up
but said I was looking for somebody
to share a beer and some laughs and the thought
of heated bodies at the drive-in movie
seemed like a good way to keep away the blues
so I went with this guy, a friend of a friend
whose name I can’t remember.

Cans from the six-pack we drank rattled
on the floorboards of the pick-up
the dust on the dash showed my bare footprints
when he decided to move faster than I wanted
and he tore my best slacks.

I wanted cheering up, but he wanted sex
so that’s why they call it date rape
and a good way to get there is chasing the blues
at a drive-in west of town on I-40.

©2006, Janet Taliaferro

Westbound on I-40 is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

Read the full text of the 3 poems:

Westbound on I-40
Summer Room
Night Terrors and the Wizard of Oz

3 Poems from “Anger and Aloes” (video) is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

Hear me read 2 poems from a collection of poetry I’m currently working on.

Rearview Mirror is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

Read the full text of the 4 poems:
Looking for Perfection
Always Decisive
Today
Past and Future Tense

4 Poems from “Breaking the Surface” (video) is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

Under my hand the lichen
gray and sage
abrades like sandpaper.
but I hold the tree trunk
close, the way I hold
my grandchildren
and pray for their safety.

I know the humble spores
have survived ice and fire,
will outlive the saw
bitter rain and the bomb
and when all my children’s children
have long disappeared
the decent lichen
will spread itself
to cover the nakedness of stone.

Past and Future Tense is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

You took apart the old Victrola
and used the works to wind a string
so we could pull a wicker basket
to the second story landing
we called a balcony.

When the weather was bad
we played Batman and Robin.

You had a yellow towel
for a cape
and pulled briefs
over a pair of rayon pajamas
just the right blue.

I had a red jerkin
and long ribbed stockings
that buttoned to a cotton vest.

You played with the other boys
in the neighborhood
who were your age and athletic.

They let me put on my white apron
and nurse’s cap
so long as I sat quietly on the porch
while the war went on in the back yard.

Bobby gashed a knee and I cried
while you bandaged the cut and scoffed.

I put on a Juliet cap
and played alone on the balcony.

Once you were abusive.

I tattled and neither of us
have forgotten it
or spoken of it again.

©2006, Janet Taliaferro

Sibling is a post from: Janet Taliaferro

I whip the hem of my daughter’s skirt
and think of you at the sewing table
polished to the same oiled gloss
as the inlaid darning egg
your eyes as mysterious
as a stocking’s hole stretched against
the elegance of hard wood
covered by a single thread in the clever hand
with its silver thimble.

I watched you marshal armies of spools
as you taught me about sharps and crewels
how to cross a stitch, baste, darn and join.

I learned that love
lies in crisp taffeta and pleats of plaid
circles the throat in lace-edged collars
is always brand new and has its own song.

I whip the hem of my daughter’s skirt
and when I hear the eye of my needle
rasp against your thimble
I know you.

©2006, Janet Taliaferro

Sewing Song is a post from: Janet Taliaferro