Kathleen O’Toole: Migrations
On exiting “Warmth of Other Suns” at the Phillips Collection, 2020
Kathleen O’Toole: A dimmer hope
First crack of crimson
in the January morning sky
engenders such an ache, not
only for the sun’s escape
from cloud block, but ours
from winter’s grip.
Kathleen O’Toole: Her Grip
Now, her magnificent grasp
of language diminished, her hands
express all there is to say: hold me,
stay with me. Don’t leave me alone.
Kathleen O’Toole: First Street Shiva for RBG
Think of all the prayers rising
today with daughters and granddaughters held up
to see her uplifted catafalque, its red, white and blue
against the white marble
Kathleen O’Toole: On Grief, in a time of pandemic
What I’m learning about grief is that
it comes and goes, like the shadow in front of me
on the afternoon sidewalk.
Kathleen O’Toole: For Such a Time as This
The poet’s ability to inhabit the events, and actors, with King himself center stage, contribute to the power of this collection. Moreover, the questions these poems raise could not be more timely.
Michael T. Young: The Gift
I’m rocked into fields
of a lyrical witness, history rolls over
glittering in sunlight
Kathleen O’Toole: Mindful
Samsara’s in every in-breath, each shutter click of attention: first warning
signs of famine, children lining up
for the soldiers’ candy
Kathleen O’Toole: Starlings (corrected version)
My mind suddenly shifts
to tally one week’s arithmetic of grief:
eighty children among the hundreds killed
in a fine-tuned cone of shrapnel
Kathleen O’Toole: Half Italian
The brain’s hard-wired with the impulse to feed
when given the chance, and it’s why I always double
the garlic in any recipe.
Kathleen O’Toole: Among the Martyrs
Jimmy Lee Jackson was 26, on February 18th 1965, when a state trooper slammed him against the cigarette machine in a dark café where he and the other voting rights … Continue reading
Kathleen O’Toole: Small Comfort — Writing Across Race
A voice on the radio back in 2001 started me down this road—the voice of Sarah Collins, whose sister Addie Mae was one of the four girls killed in the … Continue reading
