Vox Populi
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Lola Haskins: Field Notes
Dragonfly
– Odonata aeshnidae
You were born breathing water.
Grown, you push your prey from the air
into the basket of your legs
o angel bright as grass
hovering above the red flowers.
~~
Leafhopper
– Hemiptera fulgoriodea
Your husk is white with
black scatters
pale yellow at the tip.
If I could take you home
I would hold you to my ear
and listen for the sea.
~~
Crickets, Vietnam
–Oecanthus fultoni
Snowy tree crickets
synchronize their songs
until leaf, branch, and core
are one repeating
tremble. When Yen
was asked
to define moonlight,
in pearl and dim blue
she painted this.
~~
Katydid, Yucatán
– Meconmatina phrixa maya: The calls of this species are inaudible to us
Deep in the tangled bosque
a bright yellow leaf
calls out, over and over again.
Sometimes, tesoro, when
it’s very late and we’re lying
in our hammock, every bone
in my heart feels you dream.
~~~~
~~
Poem copyright 2025 Lola Haskins
Like Zeros, Like Pearls is Lola Haskins’ fifteenth poetry collection. The one before that, Homelight, was named Poetry Book of the Year (2023) by Southern Literary Review. The one before that, Asylum: Improvisations on John Clare, was featured in the NY Times. Past honors include two NEAs, the Iowa Poetry Prize, two Florida Book Awards, a Florida’s Eden prize for environmental writing, and the Emily Dickinson prize from Poetry Society of America. She has served as Honorary Chancellor for the Florida State Poets Association since 2016.
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At last, I treasure my gizmos to read such beauty while I throwi a tantrum at my random inability to interact. Poem and response and final electronic connection gave me the gift of rereading.
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Brave new world to have such machines in it!
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So beautiful x 4
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Yes, they are!
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These poems make my heart sing!
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Mine too!
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Love Sean’s poem tribute too! What a stellar poem day!
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It really is!
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These Are magical and inspiring, they sing in the very “bones of my heart.” Thank you Lola Haskins and Michael!
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Gorgeous as the beings they note. Four perfect examples of inter-species dialogue. I’ve long been fascinated by dragonflies. Your description of them as angelic, opens a whole new way of seeing their flights. Thanks, eversomuch.
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Oh!
“When Yen
was asked
to define moonlight,
in pearl and dim blue
she painted this.”
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beautiful!
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THAT!
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Reading those jewels, followed by Sean’s poems of praise: what a way to start the day!
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A wonderful dialogue between great poets! This is why I do Vox Populi.
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Magician is what she is.
Once a book she sent me arrived,
pages blank, but for indications the lines sprouted legs and crawled away
She keeps unknown vowels hidden in her web, a direct descendant of Eve
who took to naming one morning Adam went fishing and jealous God threw them both out
Even these poems have disappeared as quickly as read, from my screen, off like pollen in the air—to build flowers and trees in the rising light.
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What a beautiful encomium, Sean. Thank you!
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Dear Sean,
You’re so fast you posted that when I didn’t even know the poems were up. I’m so grateful, also to you for this and for your fine poetry.
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Marvelous that Lola inspired you so, Sean– that her poems took to their wings in your imagination
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