Insomnia’s Shadows

Ann's  poem, "After Reading Einstein’s Theory" won First Place in Artella’s Poetic Idol Contest. Besides a cash award, Artella did an e-chapbook of twenty of her newest poems plus her collage art.

Here is an excerpt from the Publisher’s Note:

“Ann McGovern has an unmistakable style of writing and each time I read one of her poems, I find myself delighting in the opportunity to get lost in one of her phrases; often the way she concludes a poem inspires me to drift for awhile, to let it sink in. I feel fuller as a reader and a writer after experiencing her writing.”

Twenty poems and art in a spiral binding is yours for $10. Please send your check, including $2.00 for postage and handling to:

Ann McGovern,

30 East 62^nd Street

New York, NY 10065

And please let me know to whom you would like your copy (copies) inscribed.

Here are two poems from Insomnia's Shadow


BECOMING AN ARTIST IN MALLORCA

I draw the hot breeze flicking the leaves,
draw my body with passion
like two cats fighting in a storm.

Draw with strips of red pepper and a fig,
draw upside down with a twig
dipped  in black ink.

I draw shapes of honey-colored rocks
 and artichoke flowers as blue
 as old ice in Antarctica.
I draw women's kitchen voices and clang of pots.
I want to draw the taste of paella and getting drunk on sangria.
I want to draw this yellow butterfly
zigzagging across the patio.
and last night under the fat moon,
me, swimming naked,  alone.


ON WEST 77^TH STREET

My sister and I shared a bedroom
as bare as Montauk in winter.
One closet between us (two skirts to hang up)
one secondhand bike, one sled, one doll.

We hated each other, my sister and I.
I threw a book and bloodied her nose.
She held my face under the tub's faucet
till I drowned.

We tugged and pulled at that doll.
I got the left arm. Janet got a leg.
Our mother didn't care, shut in her room
in widow-misery.

Then I ran to Central Park, to my oak tree
with branches strong enough to hold me.
I climbed to the third branch and read my library book
and came home only when it got too dark to see.