I am the outermost house,
a sea-smoke messenger, quick pulse
of a night blizzard, filling up
the ventricles of the yard.
"Imbued with with an acute sense of place, drawn to rivers,finning across ponds, pulled to the sea, every poem welcomes both poet and reader as a long-lost relative. "
— Kathleen Ellis, professor at University of Maine at Orono, author of Narrow River to the North.
Maine poet, Carol Bachofner writes poems that appeal to the idea that we are all connected, to each other and to nature. She writes with a strong sense of place through narrative. She enjoys writing in traditional form as well as in open form (free verse). Founding editor of Pulse Literary Journal, Carol teaches poetry in her community, Rockland, Maine and “on the road” via workshops and conferences. She was a featured speaker at the Winter Wheat Conference at Bowling Green University in 2007 and at the Maine Literary Festival in 2009. Bachofner was the founder of the annual Poetry Month Rockland in 2010, a city-wide celebration of everything poetic. On April 26th, Bachofner was named Poet Laureate ofRockland, ME .
Poems appearing in upcoming anthologies:
1. Unraveling the Spreading Cloth of Time: Indigenous Thoughts Concerning the Universe | ed. Marijo Moore
2. Dawnland Voices | Ed. Siobhan Senier University of Nebraska Press
ANNOUNCEMENT
Looking for a new project for your Book Club?
Carol's 4 books are available for book discussion groups . . . WITH STUDY GUIDES.
Folks with groups should email Carol for book discounts, study guides and to set up the project.
BOOKS FOR SALE
Daughter of the Ardennes Forest tackles Post-War PTSD and its legacy passed on to soldiers' families. The poems resonate with tank fire and humor, with suffering and healing. Written from dual perspectives of soldier and daughter, the collection remembers and forgives.
Breakfast at the Brass Compass is a delicious menu of poems written from the heart of rural coastal Maine. Every poem affirms life, breathes on the page as raw nature blending perfectly with human nature, emanating from streets, porches, and cafes, from galleries and museums, and from the ever-present sea holding the pulse of it all.
I Write in the Greenhouse embodies the wondrous and surprising in nature, as observed from the author's little glass house sometime potting shed, sometime seed nursery, sometime writing studio. The poems find a space where nature and humanity meet, paying attention to detail, celebrating seasons of snow angels, stars, wind, fish, and garden blooms, and offer a blessing on all of it.
Native Moons, Native Days: "What a gift to read Carol Bachofner's poetry, full of words and phrases from her native Abenaki language that make us long for a kinder world, a world that shows us the possibilities of turning away from the face paints of war — red and black — and opt instead for yellow, the color of peace. Very good poems, indeed." - Alice M. Azure Along Came a Spider, Games of Transformation
Drink From Your Own Well: a guide to richer writing, 2000 (Writing Workbook)
Cost: $20,00 includes shipping
Email Carol to purchase.
CALENDAR APRIL is Poetry Month
April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
"Office hours" for the Poet Laureate. Come to Teen Scene at the library (downstairs) and share poems, ask questions about poetry, and in general chat about poetry. Carol will be "IN" from 11 AM until 1 PM.
April 3, 10, 17, 24 Wednesday is "Community Reads" fireside chat noon. Invite people you know and come share a favorite poem (yours or a classic).
April 3 after Fireside Read Carol will hold a mini-workshop "How a Poem is Made." Come learn what goes into the writing of a poem.
April 10 at 3:00 PM
Come and hear students from Oceanside High School (grades 9-12) read favorite poems and/or poems they have written. We encourage parents, teachers, and other students to attend. Hosted by Rockland Poet Laureate, Carol Bachofner. Refreshments provided by Friends of the Library.
Wednesday, April 17 at Noon
Join former Belfast Poetry Laureate Jacob Fricke, Rockland Poet Laureate Carol Bachofner, along with Robert Libby and Gayle Portnow for a reading of contemporary Maine poetry. There will be time for Q & A and refreshments provided by the Friends of the Rockland Public Library.
Sunday, April 21 at 1:30 PM
May Sarton: Woman Ahead of Her Time
Join Poet Laureate Carol Bachofner for a screening of the documentary film, World of Light, narrated by May Sarton herself as she discusses her life, her writing, and the many challenges she faced as a writer and as a woman. Sarton lived in York, Maine where she was variously admired and reviled. Her work itself eventually led the way toward overcoming the prejudice she encountered. An accomplished memoirist, Sarton boldly came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. May Sarton was born on May 3, 1912, in Wondelgem, Belgium and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. Sarton died at York, Maine in 1995. Her later memoir, Journal of a Solitude, was an account of her experiences as a female artist. In her later years she was a fixture in the community, becoming not only accepted but admired.
The film was an American Film Festival Finalist in 1980. Sarton made spent her most productive literary years in Maine, writing both from Maine's landscape and her own personal experience as a woman. Her writings are prolific and varied, from journals and novels to poetry. Following the film will be a brief talk on Sarton's work, and Bachofner will share some samples of Sarton's poems and journal entries. Refreshments will be served, provided by the Poet Laureate.
Wednesday, April 24 at 3 PM
Featured this week are Native American poems, read by Abenaki poets Cheryl Savageau and Carol Bachofner along with owner/operator of Rockland's hello hello books, Lacy Simons. Poems to be read will include the writing of Abenaki poet, Joseph Bruchac and other native poets. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Rockland Public Library.
Thursday, April 25, at 6:30 pm
Poetry Celebration: A Swarm of Poets
In honor of Poetry Month Rockland and the many events associated with this celebration, we will once again host A Swarm of Poets: an evening of readings by a dozen or more Maine poets, as well readings by the winners of this year's Poetry Contest!
The 2013 Poem-a-Day Project Poetry Zone I have created this blog as a place to post my daily poems. I am writing a poem a day for one year (Or longer). This started as my November Project as Poet Laureate of Rockland, Maine. For November, December, and January, the poems will be published here as a whole manuscript. In February, they will be published one at a time, daily.
Sign up on the blog!
January Poem-a-Day Challenge Download this Challenge List to create one poem a day for the whole month. (.pdf)
Water Psalm
Bless the water,
the flow, the ebb, the seep.
Bubble it, keep it clear.
Rinse your divine face in it, salty or fresh,
fast or pooled. Feel it in your hair
beneath the storm, hear it
outside your window, running in your dreams.
Let your ancestors’ voices flow
from it to bring us together in psalm.
Keep the tide in place, keep the levees whole.
Let every molecule of water say its name.
Bless the water in us, the tide in us,
the moon that pulls it through our veins.
Bless the water that will carry our ashes home.
Carol W. Bachofner, award-winning Maine poet and teacher of poets. Available to teach/conduct writing workshops and classes. Editing services available. Her poems have appeared in such notable journals as Prairie Schooner, CT Review, Main Street Rag, The Comstock Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Cream City Review, Naugatuck River Review, and others.
She has published a writers’ workbook.
Drink From Your Own Well: a guide to richer writing.
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Her Poetry Books:
Daughter of the Ardennes Forest, 2007
Breakfast at the Brass Compass, 2010
I Write in the Greenhouse, 2011.
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Praise for Bachofner's poetry
"The poems of Carol Bachofner are distinguished first by their elegantly simple and passionate language. Each word seems carefully weighed and measured, a means of arriving at the poem’s overall form, which is arrived at, not imposed."
— Clare Rossini, professor at Trinity College and Vermont College of Fine Arts; author of Lingo and Winter Morning With Crow.
"Carol Bachofner’s poems are sacred poetry that exults in the senses. Fine-etched, delicate diction combines with passionate natural imagery to offer lovely work that, poem after poem, affirms life."
— Jennifer MacPherson, editor The Comstock Review, author of Rosary of Bones.
Regarding the poem, Watching Myself Thinking of You, 1943, which won first place in the 2004 Loella Cady Lamphier Poetry Prize and appeared in Miller’s Pond, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Summer 2004, final judge Nancy Breen (editor, Poet’s Market), writes: "This poem stood out on several levels. The tribute of a child reliving the sacrifice her parents made is touching, and the poem is full of wonderful sensory details (“orange-red suns of sweet icy fruit” and “grime of slow-moving glass” in particular). I also admire the spare, precise language; the poet resists the temptation to get maudlin or melodramatic, letting the simple and searing drama speak for itself."
CONTACT INFO:
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NEWS: Bachofner was just named as a a 2011 Maine Literary Awards finalist
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NEWS: National Federation of State Poetry Societies announces that Carol's poem "I Write in the Greenhouse" won 7th Honorable Mention in the 2011 Founders Award and her poem, "Evolution 2" won 5th Honorable Mention in the 2011 Save the Earth Award.
Drink From Your Own Well: a guide to richer writing.
Poems appearing in upcoming anthologies:
