E.E. Cummings Prize, selected by C. Prudence Arceneaux
Salt Marsh
sun some bloody
yolk leaking
when we wreck
on the marsh
the blue cows
perjure themselves
reeds scintillate
shatter light against
low clouds grainy
insides of pears
seeded with night
& if you hunger too
darling cover me
like a cathedral
make me a new
sky paint me in
stars curled over
my vaulted arches
& in every corner
I will hold you
Carolyn Oliver’s debut collection, Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble, won the Agha Shahid Ali Prize and will be published in 2022 by the University of Utah Press. Carolyn is the editor of The Worcester Review.
Online: carolynoliver.net.