The publications of poet Barbara Bloom

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. Books read.

How to write specific forms: Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát. Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Anne Carson. Barbara Bloom. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise. Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Corey Marks. Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet. Jack Gilbert. Jane Hirshfield. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka). Jorie Graham. Joseph (Joe) Stroud. Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan. Laureate Poets: Britain; USA. Louise Glück. Len Anderson. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A). Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

On the Water Meridian Praise by Joseph Stroud About Barbara Bloom Blog entry.

On the Water Meridian (2007)

• Barbara Bloom's 1st book-length collection of poems, a book in three parts:
  1. "Holding Fast", particularly poems of childhood.
  2. "Mountains That Cannot Be Worn Away", particularly poems of love and being an adult.
  3. "What the Rain Has Touched", particularly poems of elegies, loss, and death.

• In her publication party (May 11, 2007), her delightful reading was joyfully and enthusiastically received by a large audience of family and friends.

• She read poems from each of the three parts. The poems she chose to read from Part 1 were:
  1. "Not Science"
  2. "Magnetic Force"
  3. "Star Cards"
  4. "Multiplication: The Sevens"
  5. "Omeline"
  6. "Through the Fire"
  7. "The Horse Trainer's Advice"
  8. "My Canada"
  9. "Cod-Jiggling"
  10. "At the Bow Watch"

  From Part 2 she read:

  1. "Powell River News"
  2. "Switchboard Operator, Awahnee Hotel"
  3. "Nineteen"
  4. "File Clerk"
  5. "Crossing the Mountains with Blitzen"
  6. "Rehearsing Love"
  7. "At the Begonia Gardens"
  8. "On the Water Meridian"
  9. "The Singer"
  10. "Sleeping with You"

  From Part 3 she read:

  1. "Encounter"
  2. "Long Distance from Jerusalem"
  3. "Orion"
  4. "Making Things Right"
  5. "At Lake Margaret, Again"
  6. "With Reptiles"
  7. "Vancouver to Edmonton"

• Acknowledges first publications in:
  • A Cadence of Hooves: A Celebration of Horses
  • American Land Forum
  • Bellowing Ark
  • Green Fuse
  • Lighthouse Point: An Anthology of Santa Cruz Writers
  • Porter Gulch Review
  • Quarry West
  • Southern Poetry Review
  • Sou'wester
  • Sow's Ear

Book Praised by Joseph (Joe) Stroud, author of Below Cold Mountain

"For over thirty years Barbara Bloom has been quietly attending to the careful, solitary work of a dedicated writer, and through those years she has garnered a reputation as one of Santa Cruz's finest lyric poets. Her first full length book, On the Water Meridian, gathers the best of her poems, and what a pleasure it is to have them, and to turn to them, during these troubling times. Barbara Bloom's poems are a clear window into a world of wonder, of a childhood lived in the wilds of British Columbia, of a commitment to family and friendship, and an abiding reverence for the natural world. Here are poems of a life lived with loving attention, poems that praise and celebrate our incandescent moment in this world. Beneath the lyrical surface of her poems, there is a courage and tenacity of spirit that is prepared to 'go through the fire' to save what she loves. Her work has earned a quietness at the center, where she can say,

Walk slowly. Empty yourself of all cruelty. What is sent forth as love returns as love. Reach out your hand in good faith.

Her poems enact that love, they reach out to us, they give us faith, they help us to cherish this life."

Joseph (Joe) Stroud, author of Country of Light, Below Cold Mountain, Signatures, and In the Sleep of Rivers.

About Barbara Bloom

• grew up in California and British Columbia.
• earned a bachelor's degree in literature from U.C. Santa Cruz and a master's degree in English and creative writing from San Francisco State.
• taught composition and creative writing at Cabrillo College for over twenty years.
• has a grown daughter and two grandsons.
• lives with her musician husband and their dog in the countryside south of Santa Cruz.
• published her first full-length book, On the Water Meridian, in 2007.

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

• Best American Poetry series.
• Best Poems by the Best Poets - Some Lists of Winners.
• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of Britain
• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.
• Other Books of Poetry Form.

Related pages: Alphabetic list of poetry forms and related topics. Poetry Index. How to Write Poetry. Books of Poetry Form.

Copyright © 2007-2016 by J. Zimmerman, except for work quoted from other writers.

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