Connie Post
Connie Post is a San Francisco Bay Area Poet who has been writing and publishing for over twenty five years. Her work has received praise from Al Young, Ursula LeGuin, Ellen Bass, Maxine Chernoff and former US Poet Laureate Juan Herrera. Her first full length collection “Floodwater” was the winner of the 2014 Lyrebird Award from Glass Lyre Press.Her second full length collection “Prime Meridian” was just released in January of 2020. (Glass Lyre Press) Prime Meridian was a finalist in the 2020 Best Book Awards, 2021 International Book Awards and the 2020 American Fiction Awards. (American Book Fest)She has two chapbooks from Finishing Line Press “And When The Sun Drops” and “Trip Wires”. Her other books include “Waking State” (Small Poetry Press) and 2 other self-published books about parenting a son with autism. Connie Post’s poetry has been published widely and received many awards, including the 2018 Pirene’s Fountain Liakoura Award. "Gardening" was originally published in Crab Creek Review. Source
Gardening
After my father
would beat one of us
he would place flowers
on the kitchen table
the next morning
he cut the stems flush
and laid the begonias in a circle
in an inch of water
the lavender and fuchsia
permeated the morning
we were called to breakfast
we ate waffles
and said nothing of the raging blooms
the apologies
buried in the ordered way
the flowers were arranged
we looked down at our plates
eating
eating
gorging
ignoring his
sun scorched hands
these days
I spend time
pulling petals
out of my body
placing a shovel
in the open earth
placing flowers
back into the ground
Published:
2016
Length:
Regular
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
Themes:
Childhood & Coming of Age
Family
Strength & Resilience
Violence & War
Literary Devices:
Enjambment
a line break interrupting the middle of a phrase which continues on to the next line
Media Res
a literary work that begins in the middle of the action (from the Latin “into the middle of things)
Metaphor
a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic