July 8 (belated)

Alone with the Artichokes by Stephen Murabito

Julie: Even ordinary or mundane things can occasionally surprise you with their beauty, and often the beauty seems so much more beautiful because of its surroundings. So it is with this poem, where plain language is occasionally enlivened by a striking image: pumpkin-gutted men, quartered hearts. I appreciated the images more because their surroundings were low-key.

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Song for Sampson by T. Alan Broughton

Julie: I didn't think I was going to like this poem, and then suddenly I did very much. I think it was

spreading musk
of Sampson over the surface of earth

Oh, I'm a sucker for a dead animal poem, I cannot tell a lie.