Category: poetry
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Borrowing Light
A poem for the latter part of Lent Recently published in Earth & Altar. Go give them some traffic—there’s a lot of great stuff to read in addition to the poetry. When I was in grad school, I worked as a verger at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The cathedral proper…
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Call & Response 5—my poems!
“On Emerging—Strangely, Alive” “Restoring a Sentimental Wheelbarrow with Rust” In 2025, I was invited for the third time to participate in Call & Response, a fantastic program of the Grosse Pointe Congregational Church’s Arts Ministry. The premise of the program is that poets and visual artists respond to each other’s…
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Squirrels!
Two poems about those adorable pests So, I have a hole in my roof. My 101-year-old Detroit home has one of those very typical additions, a kitchen nook with a room above it. On the second floor, that creates a room off the bedroom I use as my office. It’s…
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Among Women, Blessed
The following poem, for a long time while I kept revising it, bore the working title, “Closing in on Christmas.” I’m glad my poetry group agreed I should change the title once it found its final form. And now that we’re deep into Christmas, why don’t I share my Advent…
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Mood Journaling
I’ve just had an Advent poem published in Earth & Altar, which I’ll repost over here soon. Until then, give them some traffic: https://earthandaltarmag.com/posts/among-women-blessed And now, on to what is certainly my most self-indulgent post. I thought I’d share an exercise I’ve been doing on and off for years now.…
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A Phenomenology of Trees Before Dawn
(Response to Theresa Moore’s reduction linocut print, View of Loch Long) Elaine Elizabeth BelzA PHENOMENOLOGY OF TREES BEFORE DAWN any unenumerated morning— early chill resolved with tea& cardigans—you’re already out by the lakeside I fumble with paper—still sloughing off sleep— eyes still trying to dreamopen—pull trees out of dark silhouettesone…
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Call & Response 4
OK, that was amazing. Last night’s Call & Response event centered around poets reading and artists talking about their work. The watercolorist Carol LaChiusa (pictured with me above) responded to my poem, “Mind Game” with her painting, “Mind Games.” She said that she tried to capture the imagery of my…
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Coming Up!
A couple local poetry events where I will be reading, along with others: 1. This Thursday, November 9 from 7:00-10:00 p.m. in Grosse Pointe. See my last post for a listing of all the folks involved who will be reading poems or showing their art. 2. Sunday, November 19, 3:00-5:00…
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Mind Game
The big Call & Response 4 show—featuring poetry readings by the authors, artists talking about their art, a gallery show, food, and books for sale—is coming up: Thursday, November 9, 7:00-10:00 p.m. at Grosse Pointe Congregational Church (unsurprisingly, in Grosse Pointe). For this event, gallery show, and book, artists and…
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Putting Down Roots
A prose poem about my back yard. Elaine Elizabeth BelzPUTTING DOWN ROOTS Someone who lived here before me had a taste for the exotic in flowers and vines; or else didn’t care for gardening at all, and simply allowed whatever flora came marauding through the neighborhood to take root. Arriving…
The Sound 