Author Archives: Risa Denenberg

I came to NYC to read from my new book, one reading Friday night and another this afternoon. It’s the challenge of writing poetry to find readers. But it would have been a lonely trip without catching up with friends … Continue reading →

I am not considering suicide at the moment, wanted to get that said. But I have considered, longed for, planned, and even attempted suicide in my past. So the two suicides this week do not leave me unscathed, even though … Continue reading →

When in flight, take heaps of notes At 35,000 feet jammed inside this incredible canister, render the anonymity of air. Dreams are full of words. Sentences warp what is written. Warn anyone who’ll listen. Ask, what is a South wind? … Continue reading →

I can’t believe how many books of poetry I own that I have only leafed through; worse, there are piles of books I haven’t cracked open yet. I buy books of poetry for so many good reasons: 1) To catch … Continue reading →

Surface Tension I failed physics twice, the contradictions foiled me. Gravity, a force none could explain, like God or love, more like love maybe, a plunging flume causing distant objects to orbit, merge, collide, fracture, even die. Quite the reverse when I … Continue reading →

                      At four, a trace of pink below a mound of countless shades of dark. At six, morning fog has risen like a lord, flaunting abundance on this modest plot … Continue reading →

I first saw cancer  I first saw cancer in winter, rocking gently as if to mollify a small child by keening a lullaby. She murmured a promise— a truss of blossoms. After a chill, in the thaw of spring, wisps … Continue reading →

I got your email You threw your past away to have kids. I squandered some of mine too, but for other reasons. The kids did not need you to erase your past, erase your first wife, erase me. The wife … Continue reading →

It’s too much. What could I say that even touches what I feel about these school shooting. About closing in on the impending cliff that humanity’s future wobbles upon. Again. Emotional and intellectual resistance seems not enough. How is it … Continue reading →

The Chronically Well queue at my exam room, hoping for a visitation. They don’t feel well, but that’s another matter. They don’t yet know what it is to be ill. If they ask me, which seldom happens, I recommend reading … Continue reading →