Rooftop Poetry Club - Ethan Paquin

Ethan Paquin

Bio:
Ethan Paquin's books of poetry are My Thieves (Salt, 2007); The Violence (Ahsahta Press, 2005), which was runner-up for the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award; Accumulus (Salt, 2003); and The Makeshift (UK: Stride, 2002). His poetry has been anthologized in French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets (Louisiana Literature Press, 2007), Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry (Autumn House Press, 2006), Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande Books, 2005), and Isn't It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets (Wave Books, 2002). He is Assistant Professor of English at Medaille College.

Poems:

LUMPEN DISTRICT

A wreath for thee. Blister
a water for thee, a writhe
for me my aching side's
got me, burden burden
burden in the icy lands.

Broke down here white
space all around & dead
rye's not helicopter'd by
west winds as in summer
rather it's matted by pain

hugs the earth barnyard
clumps and mud violent
in season. We're huddling
twisting wreaths in snow.
Black boot-tops contrast

with brown rye with white
space everywhere else. Not
even tree green or sky blur.
The hurt is all around here's
our only organ it's broken.