Drawing Outside the Lines

The publisher, Finishing Line Press, did a fantastic job of designing and printing Drawing Outside the Lines. Ann did a ton of readings so more books were ordered.

Ann read in Paris, Portland, Oregon,  and Tortola in the Caribbean. In New York City she read at the National Arts Club, Cornelia Street Cafe and many libraries.  Ann was thrilled when her poems were read by leading actors of Shakespeare & Co in the Berkshires in Massachusetts.

 "How Do You Cook An Artichoke" from this book won first prize  for the Tall Grass Anthology contest. Ann traveled to Chicago to receive her award and did a reading at the Chicago Tribune's Printers Row Literary Festival.

 

Please send your check for $10.00, 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.

Praise for Drawing Outside the Lines

"The world, according to Ann McGovern, is a fog roamed by these crazy creatures who drink martinis, go on blind dates, mourn and tell jokes. Her poems are witty, wry, punchy, sexual and tough-minded. She has a fine-dashed tuned sense of the strange poetry of this life, its poignant, catastrophic and ribald comedy, and she makes tight, dark, fun poems out of it, featuring us, 'smiling/like we knew what was coming' "--Tony Hoagland, author of Sweet Ruin, Donkey Gospel, What Narcissism Means to Me.

"A passionate urgency runs through McGovern's poems like a river hurrying to its destination. Reaching port begins her wondrous journey into the interior of her life. These are magical poems not only of discovery but something more--a never-ending quest--and zest--for fulfilling mysteries."--Martin Tucker, author of While There is Time: Penultimate Poems.

"Read these poems and know that Ann McGovern will never give up on love. In her elegant six-line poem "My Husband Died Six Months Ago" she is somewhere between earth and sky, always the seeker, always someplace, always sensuous, always in the flow of life."--Myra Shapiro, author of I'll See You Thursday; Four Sublets: Becoming a Poet in New York.

Here are two Poems from Drawing Outside the Lines:

HOW DO YOU COOK AN ARTICHOKE?

It's bubbling now, in the sauce pan,
probably too small a pot.
Do I cover it or not.
I prefer it in the restaurant,
all the tough leaves off. On bone china,
in flattering light,  it looks exotic.

I wonder about the statistics.
How many artichoke deaths,
planned or accidental.

At home, I'm afraid of it.
I could pierce my throat from its sharp purple edges
or choke on its pale yellow fuzz.
Maybe I'd better call the elevator man.
Living alone is scary.
Planned or accidental.
 

GONE

How could I lose the name of a city,
a town, a whole country and a river?
What was that city with its gold museum,
its grey sky and the chill.
Shanties tilted on hillsides
and higher still, grand mansions.

And that pastel town? What was its name with its steep streets
that would have left me short of breath
had you not placed your hand on my back
to help me climb?

 
Where was it that you picked
yellow daisies, rosemary, and Queen Anne's Lace?

Wild flowers, you said
for my wild woman.

In Ireland, what was that river where we slapped
mosquitoes on its banks and embraced
on a blanket so thin
the sharp grasses scratched our legs?

Ten months later, you were dead.
Only then did I remember
Lima, Cuzco, Portugal and the River Lee.