Vintage Anomaly 124: Camille T. Dungy’s “After Opening the New York Times I Wonder How to Write a Poem
About Love,” Issue 9
For a poem long in title, this week’s vintage pick is beautifully succinct. Camille T. Dungy’s “After Opening the New York Times I Wonder How to Write a Poem About Love,” perfectly captures a moment of feeling familiar to many writers striving to capture the meaning of deep and overwhelming human emotion. Take a moment today and connect with this crisp, thoughtfully-crafted poem, as well as Dungy’s two other fabulous poems that appeared in issue 9, Winter 2007–2008.
“Before the kettle boils to a whistle, quiet. Quiet
that is lost on me, waiting as I am
for an alarm.”
Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry: Trophic Cascade, Smith Blue, Suck on the Marrow, and What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, as well as a collection of personal essays, Guidebook to Relative Strangers. Dungy edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, co-edited the From the Fishouse poetry anthology, and served as associate editor for Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade. Her honors include an American Book Award, two Northern California Book Awards, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and a California Book Award silver medal. She is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Sustainable Arts Foundation, The Diane Middlebrook Residency Fellowship of the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, and other organizations. Her poems and essays have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, nearly thirty other anthologies, and over one hundred print and online journals. Dungy is currently a Professor in the English Department at Colorado State University. For more information visit camilledungy.com
Click here to enjoy “After Opening the New York Times I Wonder How to Write a Poem About Love”
