Tupelo 8/30: Snow Moon Over Ocean City, NJ

Dear Reader,

Today's poem is in response to a title incentive request (just $10, friends!) by the wonderful poet Edwin Romond.

I've lived along the Jersey shore for twelve years, and there's

something ominous about the off season, especially when winter has rearranged the landscape. 

This poem wrestles with the ghost of the matriarch and what I took and received from her. 

Here is an excerpt of "Snow Moon Over Ocean City, NJ" (read the full poem on Tupelo Press' 30/30 blog):


"The ghosts of Victorian mansions creep
with their smallpox scars and sullen curls,
like antique dolls with soft bodies

and brittle limbs clutching the back bay’s
briny nosegay. Here, in the bone moon,
where I roam the snow-swept dunes,

you appear. Spector of summer kitchens
past, dragging your chains–heavy clatter
of cast iron pots–through marram grass­."

If you would like to title one of my poems, select five words for a poem, give me a potential theme/topic, offer a formal challenge, or receive a chapbook at the end of this project, please see my first posting for incentive amounts and make your way to the Tupelo Press donation page. Be sure to select my name from the scroll down tab titled "Is this donation in honor of a 30/30 poet?" 

For those of you who have already selected your incentives, I will be delivering those poems shortly.

Yours in poetry,

Emari