Origins

Why ‘Poemfish’?

Poemfish is the way we speak when we are dreaming, the words that we invent to hold hope. I discovered Susan Wooldridge’s book Poemcrazy the same year that I began to write poetry in earnest. Now, as my poems are making their way out into the world, this web site is both a tribute to the poemcrazy people of this world, and a commitment to myself, to keep swimming.

Here is a quote from Susan’s poem:

“When the poemfish moves
The sea lights up
With stars that dip and swim…
The poemfish lives in the night ocean.
If you sleep mouth open,
The poemfish might swim in.
You’ll dream salty words
That swim away sideways, slow.”

- Susan Wooldridge, Poemcrazy

And here is a little poemfish poem of my own:

swim swim little poem,
silver among the murky waters
of every ordinary day.
you gleam and wink,
light between my hands.
too fast for me to hold,
when you are gone
it smells like the first rain
after a long, dry summer,
all the world washed awake
wide-eyed

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