Self-Portrait In Greyhound Bus - Catherine Rankovic

NB: In order to promote Architrave poems and poets, this blog will release both poet bios and my comments on their poems into the wild. Enjoy~

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The Poem:
We've all been this grumpy traveler: over-hot, overtired and lugging baggage that's as heavy as this poem's long, long lines. But in that exasperated moment it's hard to grasp one's own contribution to the unpleasant atmosphere. That's when William Wordsworth's idea of poetry as "emotion recollected in tranquility" is most useful. It's only afterward, when we've disembarked from the bus, after we've finished the poem - that word "Ugly" right at the end, sticking with us as we return to the title - that we make the necessary connection.


The Poet:
Catherine Rankovic is the author of Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis (2010),Island Universe: Essays and Entertainments (2007), and Fierce Consent and Other Poems (2005). A Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of first-place poetry awards in 2009 and 2010, she has published poems inBoulevard, River Styx, Gulf Coast, Natural Bridge, 13th Moon and other journals, and online in Umbrella and The St. Louis Beacon. She has taught university creative writing courses since 1989 and is a mentor and editor for new authors at BookEval.com. She has an M.A. from Syracuse University and an M.F.A. from Washington University.