GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

The poem “CALL OF THE YUCATAN was written for local competition, the PanAmerican Festival of Lakewood, California, winning 2^nd place. The author had long been fascinated by the ancient peoples of Mexico, especially their languages and myths.

REFR,CTIONS—a poem by Robert Roxby

“MOCTEZUMA’S MESSENGER REPORTS”. receiving 2^nd honorable mention in Pan American Festival in 1993.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“CAME A STRANGER” is included for Mother’s Day. The story is true. When the author shared the poems the author had written to cope with a long depression, her mother woke from a dream in which someone she knew introduced an unfamiliar young woman to her. In the dream, the young woman was introduced with these words, “Of course, you know your daughter.” When her mother shared this dream with the author, the author wrote this poem as an apology.

 

 

 

 

 

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

The poem “THE TALE TOLD AT SEA’S EDGE”, like ‘THE INSTRUMENT” (appearing earlier this month) describes the act of writing a poem. This poem is the source for the title for the blog under Kaleidoscope which appeared earlier this month and also “THE UNCONTAINED” which appeared earlier this month..

KALEIDOSCOPE—a series by Kathleen Roxby

“YES, POETS DO SOMETIMES TORTURE ENGLISH”. Once again the author attempts to defend the perceived “wrongness” that critics stress when speaking about poetry. She and her poet mother, Margaret, often spoke about the language subtleties that were often not understood: why “a” or “the” was preferred, for example. Most people don’t see how the nuance of difference can be important to sense.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“PROSE AND POETRY” was originally written on a napkin while the poet and her mother attended a poetry conference. The sentiment was written to be an alternate to the featured speaker’s position.

 

 

 

 

 

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

The poem “The Uncontained“ in part inspired the title of Margaret Roxby’s first chapbook Glass Rain, Golden Rain published in 1990 and was the poem first published in The Swordsman Review, 1967. In a letter to Discovery/The Nation, she wrote, “these poems express for me the exhilaration and frustration of designing poetry. The design, for me arises from the happenstance of life and nature when the imagery provided by the unexplainable workings of the creative forces blends the emotional experience with some event or physical phenomenon. Confronted with the mysteries of the universe and the human condition, the poet becomes a kaleidoscope in which the patterns bring a small bit of order out of the seeming chaos of the indefinable…I have striven to…make ‘the sound seem an echo to the sense.’’

KALEIDOSCOPE—a series by Kathleen Roxby

“A CATCH OF CHANGELINGS” by Kathleen Roxby. The title of this piece comes from a poem by Margaret Roxby (appearing on this site later this month).

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“THE POET AND THE NIGHT” was first published in Voce Pena, 2000. The “D.S” was a fellow poet and friend of the author’s. After Kathleen shared the poem with this friend, she told Katheen that Debussy was her favorite composer, something unknown to the author before that moment.

 

 

 

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“YEARNING (From the Snow Forest)” was published 1974 in Bitterroot, An International Poetry Quarterly, and again in 1975 in The Pen Women.

KALEIDOSCOPE—a series by Kathleen Roxby

In ‘BOONDOCKS”, the author explores another “borrowed” word of the English language. This word fascinated the author as a child when the word “boon” was as yet unknown to her. She felt, then, that the word sounded like baby talk.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“THE TOUCH OF YELLOW” is another poem from the author’s series entitled “A Singular Prism.” For the author, yellow is the color of joy which is appropriate for the first day of the first month in Spring.

 

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“A TALE FROM KILLARNEY”. This light verse was probably first suggested in a poetry workshop and later may have been chosen to join a series of poems she and her daughter were assembling as the work of a fictitious poet, Ariadne Garbishe, for a piece of satire regarding the awarding of prizes to poems of questionable merit.

REFRACTIONS

“IRISH?”–Robert Roxby was happy to be welcomed into his wife’s Irish heritage and this poem reflects that enthusiasm.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“THE PUB BY THE WEIR” is essentially a summary of what the author saw when she watched the play, The Weir by Conor McPherson. An early version of this piece was sent to the theater in appreciation of the excellent performances and staging.