Campbell McGrath is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, 2012). A resident of Miami, he teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University.
Poetry
Spring 2007
September 11
1. Morning, stretching sore muscles on the floor by the bed, sifting the night's quota of thoughts, images, tasks, half-remembered insights, odd lines of poetry stranded by the ebb and […]
Poetry
Fall 2014
A Greeting on the Trail
Turning fifty, at last I come to understand, belatedly, unexpectedly, and quite suddenly, that poetry is not going to save anybody’s life, least of all my own. Nonetheless I choose […]
Poetry
Fall 2014
Two Poems for Czesław Miłosz
1. Hills in the Livermore Valley Swans of grass, sun-swollen apricots, pollen-hoard of almonds and their bees, their horses grazing orchard rows, odor of eucalyptus, blown roses, and resinous vineyard […]
Poetry
Winter 2011
Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys
The mind in the true dark at 3 a.m. when the electricity goes out with a bang—circling the ambit of consciousness, listening, probing, defending the perimeter, as long ago, fending […]
Poetry
Autumn 2005
Homage to Syntax
Here: the gates of the city. Here: a new theory of explanation, a new exemplar, a new contingency, a new barbarism, bracketed and implicit. Glyph: rose or lion. Glyph: the […]
Poetry
Winter 2002
The Zebra Longwing
Forty years I've waited, uncomprehending, for these winter nights when the butterfliesfold themselves like paper cranes to sleep in the dangling roots of the orchids boxed and hung from the […]
Poetry
Winter 1998
A Dove
If May is the month of the mockingbird, September is the season of the dove. On the roof they have gathered to drink from warm puddles of yesterday’s rainwater, preening […]
Poetry
Winter 1998
Port Olry
Here the gods came down from the hills and paused at the edge of the sea. Here they rested, wrapped in grass, speaking together as the mountains speak, tongues clacking […]
Poetry
Winter 1998
Capitalist Poem #42
While Elizabeth shops at Costco, Sam and I play hide-and-seek among the bales and pallets in that vast warehouse of pure things. Believe me, what little we do buy– napkins and […]
Remembering 9/11 Web Feature
September 11
1. Morning, stretching sore muscles on the floor by the bed, sifting the night’s quota of thoughts, images, tasks, half-remembered insights, odd lines of poetry stranded by the ebb and […]
Campbell McGrath
Campbell McGrath is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, 2012). A resident of Miami, he teaches in the […]