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Carol Anderheggen

Carol Anderheggen published regionally for years, and, has now published in national literary journals. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks, Writing Down Cancer, and Born-Child, both available from Finishing Line Press. She is currently working on a manuscript, Safety of Dreams, for publication.

She worked at the Frost Festival of Poetry in Franconia, NH and taught a poetry workshop at Salve Regina University, in Newport, RI for ten years. She is a member of and webmaster for Ocean State Poets, a collective of Rhode Island poets.

Carol recently completed a two-month tour of many talk show interviews and videos on the internet. Her website, carolmaeray.com, contains a full biography, poems, slideshows and a link to a video interview.


Carol Anderheggen's microchaps & selected poems are available below.


Origami Microchap

Selected Poem(s)

 
Considerations    

Click title to download PDF microchap

Carol Anderheggen BioCvr 2023 May

Cover image from web

I cannot surrender poetry

it would seem that some poets
are silent singers—
I cannot move from the seat
of my opposition
I cannot weave such images
as mean nothing
I cannot surrender poetry
to mere sensation
to a mere exercise of words

poetry must mean
it must sing
of such desperation
and joy
as there is
it must sing
of the roughness of rocks
and the smoothness of sand

poetry is
more than is

 

Emily D.

She lived, among believers
Though an unbeliever herself—
The solid ground on which she stood—
King James Bible, Shakespeare.

Books, a few friends and family
Were her heart’s true needs—
Birthing her many poems—
It’s on those poems we feed.

 

The lowly adverb

Breathe slow the digital guru tells me—
I can breathe air, foul or fair
I can breathe gas fumes in the air
I can breathe perfume from one so fair
but I cannot breathe slow,
nor deep
but I can breathe air…

 

A Second of Infinity Experienced

peace is hearing
the distant, insistent bird,
the whir of your untroubled breath
and the static of fur petted.

it is early morning
when even Care and Woes
lie still asleep and we weep
only in our dreams
when traffic, dirty dishes
and things to be mailed
are only common memory.

Yes, peace is green,
crystalline and clean
at 6:04 am.

Carol Anderheggen © 2023

Vignettes of Childhood    

Click title to download PDF microchap

Carol Anderheggen CVR Vignettes of Childhood Dec 2018

Cover collage by Jan Keough

  

on those hot summer days
she was glad
her two toddlers
did not drool or
want to sit on her lap

 

daughter two always missing
when chores beckoned,
her discipline as a mother
now-- is surprising

 

arriving home late at night
she discovered
the new babysitter
had used her jewelry
as toys for her daughters

 

after 18 years of cooking
she hit the wall
told them to bring
restaurant receipts
for reimbursement

 

in the days before car seats
her infant fell onto the floor
with a thud -  the rusted metal
did not give way

 

as I slid behind the wheel
my daughters
(who had never seen me drive)
began to wail

 

the mornings were always so:
“Pebbles get off my face “
shouts my daughter to her cat
better than an alarm clock it was

 

$5.20 is missing
s piggy bank ’ from daughter one
daughter two swears the $5.20
found in her bedroom is hers
not her sister's

Carol Anderheggen © 2018

Mutability

 
 

Click title to download PDF microchap

Cover photo by Pip Hartnett

 

A Little Love Poem


elbow to elbow, hand to hand
we accept our bodies' electric flow
illuminating our universe
for the moment--
now past consummation
we doze quietly
points touching
elbow to elbow, hand to hand

 

 

Mutability

This dull repose wearies me—so restless
the sea, dark within, grating at the light
of half-made thoughts, like many stones
rumbling under fast moving waters.
We are water, stone--air even—mixed
together or falling apart. Fire too.
This brings me here to the matter at hand:
The boundaries of life are so porous
that sometimes the water I am
deftly smothers the fire
once emblazoned by wind
and I fall
apart.
 

 

 

each to his/her own


typewriters type
poets compose
teachers teach
each to his/
her own


even the sun knows
its function
to blaze
heat the day
then fade away


for the moon
which knows
to glow
bright white
hanging there
in the sky
like a hot quarter
in a kid’s pocket

 

Mayhem at the bird feeder, or, does might make right?


Four sparrows twitching seeds
-- down their gullets
number five alights
atop the feeder
takes a breather
then dives down
creating a flurry of feathers
soon the chirps dissolve
into an argument
of loud and angry accusations.
Tired of waiting
the big bright blue jay
watching from aside
-- swoops in
ending the discussion.

·
Carol Anderheggen © 2013