MiPoesias Magazine


	A MiPOesias Magazine Special Feature

	Barbra and her grandson Josh in front of one of the shops on the Caribbean Princess. Barbra Nightingale has had over 200 poems published in various journals such as MiPOesias, Barrow Street, The Georgetown Review, The Florida Review, The Mississippi Review, and many more. She wrote the following poems while in workshops at the first Poetry~at~Sea 7 day cruise. She lives and teaches college (literature and poetry) in Hollywood, Florida with her grandson, two cats, one dog and one granddog. Boy in Motion A thing of beauty is a boy forever. In all his skunky energy musk radiating like radar from his warm body, new in its adolescence; its spirit awake to the possibility of life everlasting, like the way the sun rises each day, sets each night — with that kind of certainty he begins each day, instantly awake, jumps in his clothes and runs, runs and runs and runs and runs till his body gives out, his eyes close and instantly he sleeps, the same energy coursing his dreams, the bears in the closet, the lions under the bed, fighting first one then the other, till the sunshine fills the sky chasing out the dark and he gets up again and it's all brand new. Just like it should be. Caribbean Princess 5/29/06 Change a word in a famous line, poem (David Lehman's Workshop: Inspiration) Josh in foreground at the wine and cheese reading event the last night on the cruise. Didi Menendez, Annie Finch and David Lehman in the background. Repartee Apertif A collaborative poem by Angela Armitage and Barbra Nightingale May your prime rib be nothing but a calcified joint. When you lift the tripas to that wet mouth, may your voice box vibrate, your throat shudder, and your very own gravy adorn the feast. May your gateau du chocolat be writhing with worms, your lemon cake be topped with the zest of earwax. May your Drambuie be filled with slivered glass, your throat slashed, your arteries pumping honeyed blood. Take this pistachio-yes, it is a pistachio, never mind that waterlogged toenail. Eat snails filled with snot. I've made for you a treat of graham cracker sandwiches, filled with an icing made from fresh, vaginal yeast curd-delicious. Suck the mucous from my stomach, laced with pyloric acid, feel it burn your tongue, the blisters that pop as you cry for help! Have you tried sautéed man nipples? They're delicious! 6/1/06 Caribbean Princess Stichomythia Poem (Gabriel Gudding's Workshop: Impropriety and the Poem) Yet with Love O daughter, a feast of lemon, bittersweet chocolate lingering in the spaces between your teeth next to the raspberry seeds and slivered almond. How I watched your pot boil, your life slippery as pasta, your oven full of sweetmeats left at my side. Never doubt for a moment I tasted your seabreeze, the salt of your anger bitter on my tongue. Yet with love, yet with love, do I offer this morsel, this olive of peace. 6/1/06 Love (praise poem) (Gabriel Gudding's Workshop: Impropriety and the Poem) © Barbra Nightingale 2006. If you've never had the chance to take a workshop with Denise Duhamel, Gabriel Gudding, David Lehman, or Annie Finch, you have truly missed a unique experience. They are all extremely knowledgeable, dynamic, and creative. The exercises that generate NEW poems are just phenomenal. Who needs to have your old stuff rehashed for every comma? HERE are truly worthwhile writing techniques that get you going and generate poems that will turn into publications! And the MOST amazing thing about the workshops was that it was in between some of the best islands in the Caribbean. St. Thomas and St. Maarten are two of the most beautiful ports of call (I have been to many) and a shopper's paradise (next time you see me check out my gorgeous new ring!) and the cliché about the clear turquoise waters you can't wait to jump into is absolutely true. I spent the entire day snorkeling just off the beach among wonderfully colored fish our last day out in Eleuthera, part of the Bahamas chain. The food and service on the ship was grand and the people were warm and friendly. Don't miss an opportunity to relax, create, and mingle on the next poetry at sea!