~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of June 2025 ~
Tag: Scott Ferry
Two Poems by Scott Ferry
[sometimes the kitchen cleans itself]
sometimes the kitchen cleans itself
the shower shines white as the prayers of clouds
i look around and there are no grievances
even god’s nametag is crisp
and i take a breath and wait
another breath and wait
i don’t trust the sky to
hold
*
[my son spends two hours at the beach]
my son spends two hours at the beach
collecting body parts of dead crabs
i let him drift down the coast
as long as i can still see him
and i become a thing that sits
and stares at the water
the wind stops and the puget sound
becomes a white mirror
people and birds flick along
like sputtering fuses
my heart an open conduit
of brine and lost time
my son comes and reports
all of his discoveries the sharp footed crab leg
the ancient jaw of an extinct shrimp
a guarding claw or a killing claw
the fossil of a sea scorpion
the mouth pieces that slice
i don’t usually let time go like this
so i slowly gather it pull him from the devonian age
place all the skeletons into a bigger skeleton
he is not yet a being of the clock
so he transverses the river
his feet dappled light in a stream
of light all going toward the sound
and refilling spilling refilling
us transporting our brittle bones
against a current for a flash of
silver through the roots and a hand to
hold on the way back home
*
Scott Ferry helps our Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. His most recent books are 500 Hidden Teeth (Meat For Tea), Sapphires on the Graves (Glass Lyre), and dear tiny flowers (Sheila-Na-Gig).
ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2024
ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2024
- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
- Betsy Mars
- Donna Hilbert
- Abby E. Murray
- Robbi Nester
- Julie Weiss
- john compton
- Tina Barry
- Timothy Green
- Kim Addonizio
- Andrea Potos
- Kari Gunter-Seymour
- Callie Little
- Alison Luterman
- Robin Wright
- Sally Nacker
- Trish Hopkinson
- Christina Kallery
- Vicki Boyd
- Terri Kirby Erickson
- Susan Vespoli
- Bonnie Proudfoot
- Scott Ferry & Leilani Ferry
- Martha Silano
- 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.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of May 2024
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of May 2024 ~
poems by Scott Ferry & Leilani Ferry
last night the poem
wasn’t coming
and my daughter came out of her bedroom
because she couldn’t sleep
and she showed me her poem
about sitting on the green slide alone
at recess watching the cherry blossoms fall
like gentle snow and unrequited love
and wishing that people would understand her
and the beauty of the cascading white sky
— Scott Ferry
*
Every day
every day I walk out by the cherry blossoms
and sit on a bright green slide
just at the edge
I watch the petals fall from the
cherry trees
watch them fall
and snow down on me
like snow in the spring
with so many things running through
my head
the beauty of the light falling through
the trees
yet all I can think about is him
then her,
I can tell you like her because I
know the look of your eyes when
you like someone
of all people I should know that
the winds sweeping my hair
knowing you will never like me back
it hurts
but you will never understand
every day under the cherry blossoms
on my bright green slide
just at the edge of my seat
with petals falling down on me
like snow
I think of you
and that I’ll never have a chance
with my middle school love
— Leilani Ferry
*
Scott Ferry is a RN in the Seattle area. His most recent books of poetry are collaborations: Midnight Glossolalia with Lillian Nećakov and Lauren Scharhag and Fill Me With Birds with Daniel McGinn, both from Meat For Tea Press. His book of prose poems, Sapphires on the Graves will be available from Glass Lyre in early Summer. He continues to write feverishly as the voices in his head demand. He tries to be a decent husband and father and general human whilst screaming into the mirrored lake of oblivion at intervals. More of his work can be found @ ferrypoetry.com.
Leilani Ferry is 12 years old and is a natural artist and writer and lovely and passionate person.
*
twin 2 by Jeannie E. Roberts
twin 2
— inspired by Scott Ferry’s poem “twin”
messy hair / disheveled appearance / i was the child
quick to enter the day in her big brother’s plaid shirt /
visibly / i was a tomboy / a girl who expressed
herself as herself / nothing more / nor less / i was
the anomaly who manifested the union of twoness /
the duality of spirit / i didn’t notice difference /
played with dolls and trucks / race cars / too / drew
flowers and insects / mermaids and worms / made
mud pies and went fishing with Dad / i recall
my budding femininity as an embarrassment /
wore tight t-shirts beneath my dresses to flatten
the bloom / i remember waiting for the school bus /
how the boys ridiculed my figure / i longed to fit in
everywhere / with everyone / never saw myself
as anything but myself / i was naïve to sexuality /
unaffected by attraction / i just wanted to express
myself as myself / to learn about the world / observe
its wondrous beauty / when you’re groomed to be
attractive you become something else / a decorated
double / a contrived form of self / i was credulous
to the cues / the fleshly signals of intent / regardless /
my current was consistent / never wavered /
remained straight / oblivious to a colleague /
a woman half my age / unmoved by her advances /
her ardent aims weren’t mine / when you’re
pushed to be pretty / nothing more / nor less /
you’re stigmatized / infantilized / objectified /
at best / messy hair / disheveled appearance /
i was the child quick to enter the day in her big
brother’s plaid shirt / perhaps / i wished to be him /
i’m the union of two spirits / where fem meets masculine
*
Jeannie E. Roberts has authored eight books, six poetry collections and two illustrated children’s books. Her most recent collection is titled The Ethereal Effect – A Collection of Villanelles (Kelsay Books, 2022). She serves as a poetry editor for the online literary magazine Halfway Down the Stairs.
Sentences 294-300 by Scott Ferry
Sentences 294-300
294. It is rare when the house is quiet at night and both my wife and I are still awake.
295. We debrief the week’s harrowing escapes; we also recline in a ripe quiet.
296. When we are in bed I reach for her hand; and if she asks, I rub her back.
297. I comb my fingers through her hair and scratch her scalp; if we are still awake.
298. Soon she is still and the breathing has burrowed into a narrow cave.
299. Soon the moss covers over our bodies and our lights swing into the dark together.
300. My hand on her leg, our voices sweep across a lake of marrow.
*
Scott Ferry helps our Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. His latest book, each imaginary arrow, is now available from Impspired Press. More of his work can be found @ ferrypoetry.com.
twin by Scott Ferry
twin
i have always had a roundness to my voice / a softness which is fleshy and feminine / a gay friend of mine told me that he thought i was gay / why i asked / lots of things he said / the way you hold your body / your gentleness / something in the way you talk / i said well i know but i am hetero as they come / he gave me a look like he didn’t fully believe me / when i watch myself on video i see the girl in me / i didn’t realize everyone could see her / a moonish twin in my limbs / an easy weeping at movies / a woman’s lilting tone / but i have never tried to rip her out / i have never tried to conceal her / she is a soft thing in me that has survived / she has grown flowers out of her many heads / flourished next to the archetypes and models of gender / sang into rivers and oceans my many glowing tears / at night when i feel frightened / she holds my bones together in her hands
*
Scott Ferry is a RN in the Seattle area. His most recent books of poetry are collaborations: Midnight Glossolalia with Lillian Nećakov and Lauren Scharhag and Fill Me With Birds with Daniel McGinn, both from Meat For Tea Press. His third book from Impspired Press is titled each imaginary arrow with the first two being Skinless in the Cereal Aisle and The Long Blade of Days Ahead. He continues to write feverishly as the voices in his head demand. He tries to be a decent husband and father and general human whilst screaming into the mirrored lake of oblivion at intervals. More of his work can be found @ ferrypoetry.com.