Carrie Green

I have to highlight Carrie Green's poem "First Fruit", it's a great look at how a simple, Robert Frost like dictation can succeed and become Imagist and beautiful. Now I think Frost is fine, but he's often held up as a simple writer, which is sometimes true. What Green achieves here goes beyond that. The feeling, the sensation and the emotion in the work is excellent.

Another poem by her that's great is "From the Field Guides of Fanny Burlingame" here in Gulf Stream 1, her "How to read me (October birthday cake)" here in Diagram 11.4. She's got an exceptional voice, almost like Neruda--like an American Neruda. I love it.

Here's an excerpt from the opening:

The first green fruit
hides among leaves.

The oranges feel hard
as limes, the skin

blister-tight. Soon cool nights
will loosen flesh into ripeness

and suffuse fruit 

with a golden blush.

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