Michael Dickman

Michael Dickman Poems

Michael Dickman Biography

Michael Dickman is an American poet born August 20, 1975 in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Field, Tin House, and Narrative Magazine. Dickman attended and graduated from La Salle Catholic College Preparatory, after which he attended five colleges (Portland State, the University of San Francisco, Portland Community College, Marylhurst University and the University of Oregon). He received a fellowship from The James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. In 2009, he received an Alfred Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. His poem "Returning to Church" was awarded the 2008 Narrative Prize by Narrative Magazine. Dickman's first book, The End of the West, was published in 2009 by Copper Canyon Press. His second book, Flies (Copper Canyon Press, 2011), won the 2010 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.He is also the coauthor, with his twin brother Matthew Dickman, of the 2012 poetry collection 50 American Plays, published by Copper Canyon Press. He along with his brother Matthew starred as the pre-cog twins, Arthur and Dashiell respectively, in the 2002 Steven Spielberg film Minority Report. Michael and Matthew Dickman were the subject of an April 6, 2009, New Yorker profile.)

The Best Poem Of Michael Dickman

Where We Live

For John Guare

I used to live
in a mother now I live
in a sunflower

Blinded by the silverware

Blinded by the refrigerator

I sit on a sidewalk
in the sunflower and its yellow
downpour

The light of  the world
beads up on one perfect
green leaf

It scribbles its name on every living thing then erases it so what's left is more of a whisper than a mother

Here it's spring

Over and over and over again

•

I used to live
in a cloud now I live
in a crow

It's tiny and crippled in there but I can find my way to the bathroom in the dark if   I need to

All the windows
in the crow are left open
and let the clouds in

Back in

They float past my bed and have nothing to say

Hello it's nice to meet you!

From a telephone pole
tongues slide out singing
welcome home

Welcome home they sing

•

I used to live
in a tree now I live
in a king

He waves his arms in front of   him and endless migrations of   birds disappear into his coat

I like to sit up inside
his crown eating sandwiches
and watching tv

Hills shake in the distance when he shuffles his feet
Floods when he snaps his fingers

I bow inside his brow and the afternoon stretches out
Orders more sandwiches

And sells the slaves

and sets the slaves free

and sells the slaves

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