Poem of the Week | March 21, 2016
Luke Johnson: "Sally Takes an Art Class"
This week we offer a new poem by Luke Johnson. Johnson is the author of the poetry collection After the Ark (NYQ Books, 2011). His poems have appeared in Best New Poets, New England Review, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review, and elsewhere. His essays and criticism have appeared in Birmingham Poetry Review, Hollins Critic, the Marginalia Review of Books, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he teaches writing at the University of Mary Washington.
Author’s note:
This poem comes from a manuscript exploring the lives of my grandparents, both of whom died before I was born. Everything I’ve learned about my grandmother leads me to believe she would have hated being told what to paint. Most of the best poems my students write are small revolutions against the assigned prompt, so I thought I’d allow Sally the same creative agency.
Sally Takes an Art Class
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