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Poetry Breakfast

Serving a little poetic nourishment every morning. Start your day with our new expanded menu. Poems, of course, are our specialty. But we will also be serving a fuller menu that includes poetry book reviews to feed poets' and poetry lovers' souls.

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Laura Foley

Red Light, Green Light – A Poem by Laura Foley

Red Light, Green Light
By Laura Foley

An ambulance pulls in front of me,
siren shattering the still winter night,
flashing red light I follow,
along the unlit country road,
for miles, toward home—
where I planned an evening
with my beloved: dinner,
log fire lighting the hearth,
coziness in bed.
Forgive me—
for the joy that rises in me,
as the red lights turn left,
into someone else’s night.

 

 

About the Poet:  Laura Foley’s seventh collection of poetry, Why I Never Finished My Dissertation, is due out in September 2019.  Her work has won the Common Good Books poetry contest, the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, The Atlanta Review Grand Prize, Foreword Review Poetry Prize and others. A palliative care volunteer in hospitals, she lives with her wife and their two dogs among the hills of Vermont. www.laurafoley.net and www.lauradaviesfoley.com

The Staff of Life – A Poem by Laura Foley

 The Staff of Life
for Gary

They were strolling
a boulevard, hand
in hand past an aromatic
Chinese restaurant,
simmering night of ‘sixty-nine,
just home from Viet Nam—
when something inside him
broke, and he woke to find
his fingers locked
around his girlfriend’s neck.
Forty years later, he’s still in prison,
rising each day at four a.m.,
kneading softness into every fold,
punching down the risen dough,
baking the staff of life
for those who’ve given offense.

 

 

This poem also appears in Night Ringing (Headmistress Press), a collection of poems by Laura Foley.

 

 

About the Poet:
Laura Foley is the author of five poetry collections, including Joy Street, Syringa and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. www.laurafoley.net

 

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

In Unison – A Poem by Laura Foley

In Unison

Years before she leaves my father,
before she’s subsumed
by wine’s delusion,
Mother’s doing exercises,
Jack LaLanne in shades of gray.
Too young for school,
I lie beside her, absorbing
her body warmth,
her comforting fragrance,
allies on the carpet,
lifting our arms
toward incandescent light.

 

This poem also appears in Night Ringing (Headmistress Press), a colletion of poems by Laura Foley.

 

About the Poet:
Laura Foley is the author of five poetry collections, including Joy Street, Syringa and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. www.laurafoley.net

 

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

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