Vox Populi
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Dawn Potter: Sonnet in Search of Poems I’ve Never Written
I’ve been meaning to write about a patch of mossy
frogs’ eggs in a vernal pool, about a single contrail
chalking a blue November sky, about the glossy
covers of biographies, about the tortuous tale
of an ant city under a scarred sidewalk, about two
lazy landscapers blowing leaves into a neighbor’s yard,
about falling in half-love with someone else’s youth,
about gobbling pie without a fork, about the barbs
of terrible hedges, about the anxiety of gifts, about my feet,
about the murmur of a radio, about leftovers congealing
in a pan, about oxen, about the loneliness of husking sweet
corn under the stars, about this sad white ceiling.
But maybe I don’t need to bother inventing.
Maybe you’ve already imagined this ending.
Copyright 2020 Dawn Potter
Dawn Potter’s many books include Chestnut Ridge (Deer Brook Editions, 2019). She directs the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching, held each summer at Robert Frost’s home in Franconia, New Hampshire.
Vox Populi 
I have been a fan of Dawn Potter’s writing since I read, several years ago, her wonderful memoir, Tracing Paradise, a book from which I learned a great deal more about a poem–Paradise Lost–that I had been reading since I was in high school, and teaching almost yearly for about 40 years, always re-reading and loving it more. Her marvelous memoir made me love the poem even more and of course, I sought out her poetry and other writings. (I even commented about Tracing Paradise on Amazon, filled then with my initial enthusiasm, which has not waned.) I recommend the book and more to anyone who will listen.
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Thank you, Thomas. What a lovely tribute to Dawn’s work!
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Thomas, I’m so touched and amazed by this. Thank you for being the kind of reader anyone might dream of. I’m really, really grateful.
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Amazing write shows how the five senses take in all that information and the ego makes of it what it will. ❤
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yes yes yes!
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Thank you all for reading! This was a lovely way to begin the week. I’m so grateful.
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Absolutely wonderful. And now you did it! You wrote a poem about all the things!
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Wonderful poem!
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That looks so effortless. (bet it’s not, but it flows like it is)
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