Tag: Robin Wright

Two Poems by Robin Wright

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Where Does Love Go to Die?

To a bin next to old sweaters
impossibly out of style,
colors faded to pale

To a junkyard filled
with rusted spare parts,
piled together under
a diesel-smudged sun

To the basement of your heart
where brokenness curls
into a fetal curve

To the attic of my heart
where only dust survives

*

Spying on the Dead

While cleaning out our cousin’s house,
my sister & I linger on black & white photos.
Bride & groom smile with hope
not yet knowing that instead
of bearing children,
they will bear disappointment.

Mementos like a signed baseball,
ticket stubs make us smile,
but we want to turn away
from medications, Depends,
private correspondence.

As if on a plane flying
through constant turbulence,
the invasion of privacy
makes our stomachs lurch.

We focus instead
on the many flashlights
left behind. A blue one,
beam focused or broadened,
so that when it’s dark
we will always have their light.

*

Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in As it Ought to Be, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, ONE ART, Loch Raven Review, Panoply, Rat’s Ass Review, The Beatnik Cowboy, Spank the Carp, The New Verse News, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best New Poets 2024 nominee. Her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.

ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2024

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ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2024

  1. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
  2. Betsy Mars
  3. Donna Hilbert
  4. Abby E. Murray
  5. Robbi Nester
  6. Julie Weiss
  7. john compton
  8. Tina Barry
  9. Timothy Green
  10. Kim Addonizio
  11. Andrea Potos
  12. Kari Gunter-Seymour
  13. Callie Little
  14. Alison Luterman
  15. Robin Wright
  16. Sally Nacker
  17. Trish Hopkinson
  18. Christina Kallery
  19. Vicki Boyd
  20. Terri Kirby Erickson
  21. Susan Vespoli
  22. Bonnie Proudfoot
  23. Scott Ferry & Leilani Ferry
  24. Martha Silano
  25. Joan Mazza

Note: Some poets were published multiple times in ONE ART in 2024. Links are to each poet’s most-read poem(s) of the year.

Two Poems by Robin Wright

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A Lovely Evening for a Dance

After Cypresses by Vincent van Gogh

The Cypresses stand in line,
greenery fluffed, spines straight,
wait for soft clouds to envelope.
The pinks and blues swirl
towards them. The grass below
sways to the wind’s whispers.
No one left without a partner,
the dance floor full of grace
and gratitude.

*

Watching Over It

After Mount Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cezanne

The snow-capped mountain transforms
into the lined face of an old man,
right eye hides in shadow,
left eye watches the land, trees,
and house tucked into greenery,
trapped as if a child not allowed
to leave. A serpent head spews
from the old man’s mouth,
a guard to keep the house in place.
The old man’s arm tattooed
with the colors of disobedience,
blue for submersion, pink
for blood diluted but not gone.

*

Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in As it Ought to Be, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, ONE ART, Loch Raven Review, Panoply, Rat’s Ass Review, The Beatnik Cowboy, Spank the Carp, The New Verse News, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best New Poets 2024 nominee. Her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.

Grief by Robin Wright

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Grief

sits beside you, but doesn’t
draw you a bath or mix
a margarita, put its hand
on yours, rub your shoulders.
It runs off to the beach once
in a while but always comes back.
At first you want to lay your head
on its shoulder, find comfort
you know has to be there somewhere,
but it’s hidden deep in the bottom
of a closet or on a shelf
in the basement behind cans of paint.
The search a scavenger hunt
with no end and no prize.

*

Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in ONE ART, As it Ought to Be, Loch Raven Review, The Beatnik Cowboy, Spank the Carp, The New Verse News, Rat’s Ass Review, Fevers of the Mind, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.

Rummage Sale by Robin Wright

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Rummage Sale

My uncle died three days
before his 92nd birthday.
Now, we sort through belongings,
dismantling his life, offer gems
to the next people maneuvering
their way through the years.

I hurry to my parents’ house,
set up tables, hang clothes
on racks, price tools
that belonged to my uncle.

Geese honk and fly south,
synchronized, as if taught
this special feat to amaze
those of us here below.

I’m about to hang my uncle’s red shirt
as a lone goose flies overhead.
It’s more vocal, flies closer
than the others. I glance at the shirt
in my hands, my uncle’s favorite.

*

Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in As it Ought to Be, The Beatnik Cowboy, Loch Raven Review, ONE ART, Spank the Carp, The New Verse News, Rat’s Ass Review, Fevers of the Mind, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.

Knowing the Score by Robin Wright

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Knowing the Score

My friend planned to meet me tonight,
but instead, she sits on a barstool
at the Peephole, chatting
with a sixty-something bank exec.

He told her she smells like vanilla,
that her long, straight, auburn hair
is that of a goddess, and he’d like
to take her home. He added
his wife died two years ago,
hasn’t touched a woman since.

She tells me all this over the phone
after she kicked back a shot of vodka
and accepted his invitation.
When I ask if she’s okay, she laughs,
says if desire were measured in yards,
she and this guy would be football fields.

I think about how fields come alive
during a game, players running, catching,
crashing into each other, but how empty
the gridirons are between games, how my friend
drifts from relationship to relationship,
how she might tell me she’s not worried
if she wins or loses
as long as there are more games ahead.

*

Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in One Art, As it Ought to Be, The Drabble, The New Verse News, Bombfire Lit, Young Ravens Literary Review, Spank the Carp, Rat’s Ass Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Sanctuary, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in October of 2020.

Tattoo by Robin Wright

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Tattoo

My grandson asks which tattoo
tempts me to the point
of letting a needle pierce my skin.

He wants a tiger, a fierce,
strong symbol to snarl
from his shoulder or stomach
to reinvent him or remind him
of who he is, who he can be.

I favor an elephant,
big
gray
saggy
full of life
sixty years has bestowed.

*

Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in Muddy River Poetry Review, Rat’s Ass Review, Bombfire, Sledgehammer, Young Ravens Literary Review, Sanctuary, Ariel Chart, Spank the Carp, Panoply zine, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.