Leaning
In the summer of 2023, I was at an artist residency and we went for a drive up a mountain to do a sunrise hike. The roads were wet and the vehicle slipped off the road. After a couple of hours, we were rescued. I wrote this poem the same day, and the photo was taken after the boy (in the center) pulled our SUV free.
On Our Walk to Le Celle
This poem describes an incident in July 2019 when Amy and I were in Cortona, Italy. This photo is from that walk, taken just before the incident.
Read “On Our Walk to Le Celle” and other poems in The Bombay Literary Magazine
To Find Out What the World Is
I am still trying to understand the world and the people who occupy it, which I explore in this prose poem in Issue 15 of Birdcoat Quarterly.
Weighing the Options
Having cancer is not an experience I ever would have chosen, but it is a valid and strangely life-affirming one. This poem was nominated for the 2024 Pushcart Prize.
Stanzas for the End of It
Stanzas for the End of it is about the end of a romantic relationship but it is also an attempt at Sapphic stanzas.
The First Man I Slept with After My Husband
My poem in the Atticus Review’s new triquarterly format! Nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize and the 2023 Best of the Net Anthology.
The Morning After My Bilateral Mastectomy
Three poems in Hole in the Head Re:View: Sestina for the Repressed, Teenagers Making out in Rose Hill Cemetery, and The Morning After My Bilateral Mastectomy,
Text Message
This poem is a response to an ongoing "Word Challenge" series at Eclectica in which poets must write a poem containing four pre-chosen words. The words for this challenge were: BORROW, PHONE, LOST, and NOTHING.
Link: Text Message
Learning to Read a River
I wrote this poem while sitting beside the river in this picture, which I took while in residence at The Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota.
How Quickly the Body Forgives
I wrote this poem at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota, after a minor biking accident, and I took the photo of lilacs along the bike trail to town.
The Fire Next Door
This poem is based on something my siblings and I witnessed as children. I am honored that One Sentence Poems nominated it for a 2017 Pushcart Prize.
Read Michael Meyerhofer’s review of “The Fire Next Door” in Red Fez magazine
The Red Devil
Doxorubicin, one of the chemo drugs I took for my cancer, is nicknamed "The Red Devil" because it is bright red and has horrific side effects. Obviously, we need a cure for cancer, but we also need less toxic drugs to treat cancer patients.
Read The Red Devil
What Hurts
I wrote this pantoum at I-Park in June 2016, and I'm thrilled it found a home in Muse/A Journal. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Mercer University Press in 2018.
Read: What Hurts
Where I Come From
This poem was selected as Deep South Magazine's poem of the day on April 25, 2017.
Link: Where I Come From
The Miracle of Hands
This poem appears alongside "Reflection" and "Everything, Just Noise" in The Wild Word Issue #15: And So We Love (2017).
Something Closer to Joy
Poem about my grandmother making biscuits, published in Whale Road Review, Issue 6 (2017).
Link: Something Closer to Joy
My Father Holding His Father's Hand
Poem published alongside "My Younger Sister Riding Shotgun" in Juxtaprose Literary Magazine vol. 10, December 2016.
Link: Two Poems by Sara Hughes
A Simile for His Name
The controlling image for this poem was inspired by a "poem-in-a-bottle" project I conducted at I-Park in June 2016. I wrote the poem in one sitting and it was published in One Sentence Poems on September 2, 2016.
Read: A Simile for His Name
My Twin Sister in the Print Shop
Poem first published alongside "My Father Counting Change at Closing" in Right Hand Pointing Issue 99: Bone Fire (2016). Web.
The Kingdom of Childhood
This poem is one of four published in Atticus Review in February of 2015. Other poems include "How We Learn," "The Makeout Party," and "Your Laughing, or My Trying to Make it Happen."
The Tire Swing
Poem first published in decomP: a literary magazine in July 2015. This site also features an audio version of the poem.
Link: The Tire Swing
Watching an Old Springsteen Concert on TV
Poem first published in the anthology, Love Poems and Other Messages for Bruce Springsteen. Ed. Jennifer Bosveld. Columbus: Pudding House, 2009. Print.
Painting Blackbirds
Poem first published in Review Americana vol. 9.1 (2014). Web.
Link: Painting Blackbirds
What You Must Understand
Poem first published in Stone River Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poetry. Eds. Carey Scott Wilkerson and Melissa Dickson. Mobile: Negative Capability Press, 2015. Print.
Link: What You Must Understand
Four Poems About Twins
“One Song,” “Twin Speak,” “The Conjoined,” and “Study Abroad.” First published in The Collapsar Issue 6 (2014). Web.
Pretend You Don't Owe Me a Thing
Poem first published in Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century vol.10.2 (2004). Print.
Reprinted on Rattle's website in November of 2012.
