Watermark

Sharon Brogan is the proud owner, she notes, of a rejection letter from The New Yorker magazine which she has pinned to her wall. Showing better taste, Calyx, a Journal of Art and Literature by Women, has published Sharon.

Watermark, A Poet’s Corner is filled with Sharon’s writing and many compelling photos, some which seem to deliberately accompany a particular poem and some for other blogging purposes or which stand on their own. What attracted me the first time I visited Watermark is an ethereal quality to the layout of Sharon’s Weblog that pulls me in, when I visit, in a quiet but insistent manner. Perhaps it is related to a quote she has posted from Alice Notley:

“I think the poet becomes more and more of a shaman, getting older, in the sense that so much happens to one, and there's nothing left but the poetry function, which is a healing, ecstatic function, as much as it is anything else.”

Do you think that can come through the screen from a Weblog?

There is a section, "Solstice Letter," which is a fairly lengthy series of short poems guiding the reader through Sharon's sensibilities of the seasons of an entire year.

It’s just my take, but I think Sharon’s great strength is the very short poem – almost haiku in form. Three that stand out for me:

She writes here
sitting alone
at a table for two
drinking lemon tea

this heavy braid
the only remnant
of my youth

body like a river
all slow curves
and pools

Sharon lives in way off Montana with a couple of dogs, a couple of cats, some other pets and nearby friends. Her Weblog is a special place, perhaps of renewal – and we can all use some of that now and again.

NOTE: I took issue yesterday with Sharon for not crediting me on another site. It was an innocent mistake and I believe we have resolved this between us.