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Nettie Farris

Nettie Farris      Nettie Farris is the author of COMMUNION (Accents Publishing, 2013), FAT CRAYONS (Finishing Line Press, 2015), the micro-chapbook STORY (Origami Poems Project, 2016), and THE WENDY BIRD POEMS (dancing girl press, 2016). She has received the Kudzu Poetry Prize and a Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences University of Louisville. She writes Book Reviews for MELANCHOLY HYPERBOLE, Reference Essays for Salem Press/Greyhouse Publishing, and the Spotlight on a Press feature for BLUE LYRA REVIEW, where she serves as Review Editor.


 

 


Nettie's microchaps & poems are available below.  Download the single-page PDF by clicking the title.  

Origami Microchap

Poems

T H R I V E       

Click title to download microchap

Nettie Farris Bio CVR Thrive 2022 Sept

Cover photo: Strings of Nickels
by author

Gaslit


Rest assured. This ill-
ness is not yours.

 


Carved

 

By win-
ter, you will
be whit-
tled
to the bone.

 

 

Thrive

 

I get along best with plants
that like
to be neglected.

Confession

 

Truth is. I still need my mother.

 

 

Achievement

 

Today I am breath-
                              ing.

 

 

Boundaries


Dear MS Word:

Please stop correct-
ing me.
This page is mine.

Nettie Farris © 2022
 
The Inchworm Diaries      

 Click title to download microchap

Nettie Farris CVR The Inchworm Diaries

Cover: Girl with Mask
by Lauri Burke
 

afternoon shadow

 

Stopped to think and the day grew
infinitely longer.

 

panorama

Someday I shall see the other side of
this puddle.

 
dear diary
 

Do you believe in progress?

a new beginning

 

This morning I awoke to a new beginning.

 

the research question

Might I be happier if I could
measure out my life with coffee spoons?

 

you do the math

Sometimes it feels that 2 + 2 = a lot
more than 4.

Nettie Farris © 2017
 

Story

   

 

 

Click title to download microchap

Cover: Girl with Mask
by Lauri Burke

*

Story

Story
 
She composed a little story to make
sense of it all.

Story

When she was drowning,
he stood apart and watched.
Then, when he was dampened
by her splashing, he distanced himself
completely.

She thought about calling it Distance,
but felt she had enough distance in
her life already.
 
 
Boiling Down the Story

She decided to condense the story to its
essential elements.

Little Birds

He flew away from
her, so she flew
after him, so he
flew away from her.

Little Birds

He arrived. He
departed.

(Her part in the story didn’t much
interest her.)
 

Revision

She revised the story in order to make it
more truthful.
 
Story
 
When she was drowning,
he stood apart and watched.
Then, when he was dampened
by her splashing, he distanced
himself completely.
 
Little Birds
 
He flew away from her, so
she flew after him, so he flew
away from her.
 
But the story had transformed so utterly
that she wondered whether it was the
same story at all.
 
 
Little Ghost 
 
Though the story now seemed the same, though smaller, the title (with the elimination of flying) no longer fit. What most interested her was not that he had arrived, nor that he had departed, but that he had remained. 
 
Little Ghost 
 
Little Birds 
 
He arrived. He 
departed
 
 
Point of View 
 
Little Ghost 
 
Little Birds 
 
He arrived. He 
departed. 
 
Once she changed the title from “Little 
Birds” to “Little Ghost,” the story was no 
longer about distance - at all, but (in a small-
subtle-sort- of-way) about intimacy.
 
 

The End of the Story

She had no doubt about how the story
ended.

     The End of the Story

     She gave him an in but he
     didn’t take it. She gave
     him an out, and he took it.


The End

Nettie Farris © 2016