Laura Linnea Jensen

Laura Linnea Jensen Poems

Laura Linnea Jensen Biography

Laura Linnea Jensen (born November 16, 1948 in Tacoma, Washington) is an American poet. She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied with David Wagoner, Mark Strand, and Galway Kinnell, and from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with an MFA in 1974, where she studied with Norman Dubie, Donald Justice, and Marvin Bell. She became friends with Tess Gallagher. Her work appeared in Ploughshares. She read at Burning Word 2005. She lives near Wright Park, Tacoma, Washington.)

The Best Poem Of Laura Linnea Jensen

Heavy Snowfall in a Year Gone Past

Heavy snowfall in a year gone past
hammered the sudden edge
of the house foundations
to a rounder world
a whiter light after the end of day.
My favorite coat, lush sable
in color, a petty fake
that warmed me to the ears
hangs after the seasons
a beaten animal grinning buttons.
It became quite real to me
and now is matted on a hook.
How far away what mattered
has flourished without me,
along the tasty road in the wood:

clark, clark, the hidden birds call
or do wrong, do wrong, someone
do wrong, snapping apples
from out in the woodside, telling
their fathers names, pie cannonrude
barkwithfist brendanbe with cherries.

It is a vast field
where snow will fall again.
Is the vast field ownership
or a presence of mind?

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