poetry on mamazine:

This Morning on Our Island
by Catherine Hodges

Gates of Love
by Paul Hostovsky

Drinking Mom
by Laurie Barton

The Morning After the Oscars
by Laurie Barton

Out of Doors
by Susan Cohen

Chamber Music
by Susan Cohen

Extraction
by Susan Cohen

Stalk
by Kristin Berger

Thoughts on Maternity
by Jackie Cornog

Mr. Goldfish and Vicky
by Judith Baumel


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POETRY

Chamber Music
by Susan Cohen

To learn a piece of music
you must get it in your hands.

I was scrambling on my elbows
up the bed, frantic
to back out of maternity.

I see your baby,
the nurse shouted.
Touch the head!

She had to yell until I heard
above the pain.

O, then I reached down
and met his threads of hair,
hot and yolky.

O, then I learned the hard
crescendo of his skull.

Originally published in The Seattle Review. Also appears "Backstroking", Unfinished Monument Press, (c) 2005. Permission to reprint in mamazine.com


Susan Cohen lives in Berkeley, California, where she is a journalist. Her poems have appeared in Poetry International, Poet Lore, Puerto del Sol, the Seattle Review, Tar River Poetry, and other journals. In 2005, Unfinished Monument Press published her chapbook, "Backstroking", which won the Acorn-Rukeyser Award.