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A poetry anthology celebrating the first 20 years of the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Since 1992, the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival has welcomed nationally acclaimed poets to the picturesque landscape of Hill-Stead Museum, a National Historic Landmark in Farmington, Connecticut. Reflecting the festival that has attracted thousands to this rolling country estate, the poems in this collection have been selected with a broad audience in mind. In the spirit of the festival's mission to nurture the art of poetry, the anthology features young and emerging poets alongside established poets, including Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Carolyn Forche, Yusef Komunyakaa, Maxine Kumin, James Merrill, Marilyn Nelson, Grace Paley, and Richard Wilbur. This new anthology captures the exciting and unique relationship between a distinctive American museum and poetic expression. In addition to a rich selection of poetry, the book includes both an illustrated introduction providing a history of the festival and an appendix listing all festival dates, poets, and musicians for each year.
"The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival is a little paradise for poetry." – Galway Kinnell
Foreword
Editor's Acknowledgments
Introduction 1992
Fingers — Hugh Ogden
Remembering My Parent's Sex Life — Sue Ellen Thompson
In Certain Lights — Charles Darling
Star-Fix — Marilyn Nelson
Shamaal — Pit Menousek Pinegar
Pam Nomura
Praying in Marquand Chapel After Cancer Surgery — Emily Holcombe
Angel — Steve Foley
My Mother's Closet — Elizabeth Kincaid-Ehlers
Deer Crossing — David Holdt
Spring Cleaning at Night — Susan Gimignani Lukas
Baptism — Rennie McQuilkin
1993
164 East 72nd Street — James Merrill
On Rollerblades — Carole Stasiowski
Kafka: Lilacs — Robert Cording
Wild Thing — Norah Pollard
Las Dos Camas/Two Beds — Bessy Reyna
1994
A Barred Owl — Richard Wilbur
The Black Back-ups — Kate Rushin
Shenandoah — Honor Moore
The Other Alamo — Martín Espada
The Book of God — Ted Deppe
1995
How Could She Not — Galway Kinnell
First Grade—Standing in the Hall — Cheryl Savageau
Totem — Jeffrey Harrison
Terms of Endearment — Sue Ellen Thompson
Undertaker — Patricia Smith
Withouth — Donald Hall
1996
Touch Me — Stanley Kunitz
Mrs. Krikorian — Sharon Olds
For a Little Girl of Pompeii — Brendan Galvin
The cat's song — Marge Piercy
Abba Jacob and — Marilyn Nelson
1997
Visitation — Mark Doty
Sweet Daddy — Patricia Smith
Backstroking at Thrushwood Lake — Dick Allen
El Placer de la Palabra — Naomi Ayala
Japan — Billy Collins
1998
Curvew — Carolyn Forché
His Hands – Natasha Trethewey
Prayer Ascending, Prayer Descending — Margaret Gibson •Shooter — Leo Connellan
Scrambed Eggs and Whiskey — Hayden Carruth
the thirty eighth year — Lucille Clifton
1999
Wing Road — Eamon Grennan
"Every man whose soul is not a cloud hath visions" — Gray Jacobik
Imagining Myself My Father — Stephen Dunn
The Path to the Milky Way Leads Through Los Angeles — Joy Harjo
The Death of the Hat — Billy Collins
2000
Among Children — Philip Levine
What the Living Do — Marie Howe
Refrigerator, 1957 — Thomas Lux
My Late Father's Junk Mail — Susan Kinsolving
He Raises His Cup — Zach Sussman
Preciosa Like a Last Cup of Coffee — Martín Espada
2001
Ballad — Sonia Sanchez
We All Fall Down — Rennie McQuilkin
Birthday Girl: 1950 — Linda McCarriston
Distances — Edgar Gabriel Silex
Listening to My Father Practice — Emily Madsen
Packing Plant — Peter Schmitt
Blues — Doug Anderson
2002
Facing It — Yusef Komunyakaa
Martha Stewart's Ten Commandments for Snow — Vivian Shipley
The One I Think of Now — Wesley McNair
25 Haiku — Marilyn Chin
To Be the Lighter Shade of Black — Jennifer Steele
At Spike's Garage — Steve Straight
2003
Morning Swim — Maxine Kumin
Psalm for Distribution — Jack Agueros
Strange Altars — Margaret Gibson
Natasha in a Mellow Mood — Tim Seibles
Roots — Haily Gallant
The Litany of Streets — Tony Fusco
Guardian Angel — Wally Swist
2004
Here — Grace Paley
Winner of the Volcanoes: Guatemala — Richard Blanco •Anyways — Suzanne Cleary
Seed Sack — Joan Joffe Hall
Field — Martha Collins
Sacrilege — Emily Ayer
Going to Canada — Kate Rushin
2005
The Skeptics — Gary Soto
My Father's Gift — Edwina Trentham
Sofa-Bed — Douglas Goetsch
Common as Air — Brad Davis
from Urban Renewal — Major Jackson
All Natural Drunkard — Lily Press
Nunca tu Alma — Courtney Davis
2006
The Bell Zygmunt — Jane Hirshfield
You bring out the boring white guy in me — Jim Daniels
Bolivia Street — John Surowiecki
What She Wanted — Reneé Ashley
Immigrant Blues — Li-Young Lee
As a Poet — Olivia Ho-Shing
Last Light — Norah Pollard
2008 •Poem of Disconnected Parts — Robert Pinsky
Night Drive — Theo Theofilos
What Was Said to the Rose — Coleman Barks
The Lanyard — Billy Collins
Duties of the Spirit — Patricia Fargnoli
Maestro — Ilya Kaminsky
The Mountain Is Holding Out — Paul Muldoon
what i left on capen street — Sasha Debevec-McKenney
2009
from August Notebook: A Death — Robert Hass
The Late Cold War — Brenda Hillman
First Try — Susanna Myserth
My Last Borders, or Poem Ending with a Homage to W. B. Yeats — Baron Wormser
Summersick — Martha Crouch
My Imaginary Husband — Kim Roberts
Ellipse — Lita Hooper
Aubade (Dawn Song) — Marilyn Nelson
Where We Live — Don Thompson
The Coffin Store — C. K. Williams
2010
It All Comes Back — Galway Kinnell
The Ukiyo-e Lady in the Snow — Bessy Reyna
Every Person in This Town Loves Football — Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Happy Birthday — Kate Lebo
Under the Porch — Ginny Connors
Ghost Elephants — Jean Valentine
Nationalism — Kristin Rocha
Cocktails with Orpheus — Terrance Hayes
Barbie Gone — Victoria Chen
Undivided Attention — Taylor Mali
2011
The Facts — Pat Hale
Romantic Moment — Tony Hoagland
Cattleya Trianae in the Church of a Seventh Grade Garden — Luisa Caycedo-Kimura
Love song to my motorized wheelchair — Ekiwah Adler-Belendez
My Muse — Elizabeth Thomas
This Far — Dick Allen
Obituary (or the thing it should have said) — Carolyn Orosz
Why A Colored Girl Will Slice You If You Talk Wrong About Motown — Patricia Smith
winter — David Watts
Pescadero — Mark Doty
Chronology
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Index of Poets
BRAD DAVIS teaches creative writing at College of the Holy Cross, and edits Hill-Stead's online poetry journal Theodate. Poet Rennie McQuilkin and former Northeast Magazine editor Lary Bloom were collaborators in the founding of the poetry festival, and McQuilkin directed the festival for many years.
"Poetry lovers should...be intrigued by Sunken Garden Poetry: 1992–2011, edited by Brad Davis, which represents works from Sunken Garden Poetry Festival at Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT."
~Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
"The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival is a cultural phenomenon."
~Billy Collins
"The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival is a little paradise for poetry."
~Galway Kinnell
"The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival has become legendary during its existence, an indispensable part of the literary landscape. Poetry's ability to reach out to a broader public depends on exactly this kind of event, which draws a large audience because of the combination of place (Hill-Stead Museum's unparalleled beauty), and a strong curatorial sense for both the selection of poets and the accompanying musicians. There are few such series in the country, and this festival is a jewel in the crown. My experience as a participating poet was also exceptional."
~Jane Hirshfield
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