Poems by Gail, listed by title

WARNING: many of my poems address hard issues like child sexual abuse and its effects on both a child undergoing it and the adult survivor. Please read carefully. Also, these *are* poems, not factual accounts. I've used what I remembered, what I've dreamed, what worked. I haven't lied, but I write poetry to get to a higher truth.

A few poems have been published in magazines and/or anthologies, but it's not like anyone's going to be able to find them very easily. I've included publication information next to the link.

Journey to the cornfield (the book I put together)

Thanks to my beloved Greg for supporting me both emotionally and financially for all these years and heartache, to Deborah and Bob for being so positive about my work and for doing their own work to help remind me that there's always room in a life for creativity in so many forms, to my mother for being proud even when she insisted she couldn't get what I was writing about, to other people who've taken joy in my poetry, but who have told me not to put their names on the Internet, and to Alexandra for being so incredibly happy when I sent the book to her as a text file for a birthday present and reminding me that I could put my poetry up on this site.

*****

Stumps (the first section, darkness traveling toward light)

The bear
Iphigenia
A return to childhood (published in Writing Our Way Out Of The Dark, edited by Elizabeth Claman, Queen of Swords Press, 1995)
Addiction to the wire
Patricia Hearst to Tania
Meditation
Part of my father's story
The dog at the heart of the world (published in Muddy River Poetry Review, vol. 1, no. 1, Summer 1995)
For Anne Sexton, twenty years after her suicide
The blessing of distance
The memory of water
Hull, August 1993
Elizabeth's dream
Desert travel
Birth
Receding waters

Seeds (the second section, in the light of day and hope)

Germination
Bastille Day
My first marriage (published in Georgetown Review, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1997)
How to see into his heart, and live
Railroad time
To the lover bearing flowers
Wedding journey
Uncorked
Recess
Rolling the dice
Forgetting my husband
Porn store (published in The Cathartic, Number 34, Spring/Summer 1995)
For a singer seeking her own voice
He kneels on the rumpled bed (published in Passionate Hearts, edited by Wendy Maltz, 1996)
The whole woman
Cornfield (published in Muddy River Poetry Review, vol. 1, no. 2, Winter 1996; reprinted in Intimate Kisses, edited by Wendy Maltz, 2001)

More poems

Kotegaeshe
Emily
The strength of the angry woman
The best soup
Ogre
Funeral
Incentive

More to come when I get the time

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