“as kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . . ”
Click on the titles below to read the full poem
Gradual Clearing
from The Kingfisher
Beach Glass
from The Kingfisher
The Sun Underfoot Among the Sundews
from The Kingfisher
The Dahlia Gardens
from The Kingfisher
The Kingfisher
from The Kingfisher
Imago
from The Kingfisher
The August Darks
from What the Light Was Like
Black Buttercups
from What the Light Was Like
Winchester: The Autumn Equinox
from What the Light Was Like
The Reedbeds of the Hackensack
from What the Light Was Like
The Nereids of Seriphos
from Archaic Figure
The Waterfall
from Archaic Figure
A Hermit Thrush
from Archaic Figure
Grasses
from Westward
Savannah
from Westward
Fireweed
from Westward
Nothing Stays Put
from Westward
Syrinx
from A Silence Opens
The Horned Rampion
from A Silence Opens
The poems available on this site cover Amy Clampitt’s entire career, from each of her collections of poems published by Alfred A. Knopf. For permission to reprint any of Amy Clampitt’s poems, please visit the Penguin Random House permissions portal to submit a request.
Amy Clampitt’s poems deal with a vast array of topics, ranging from literary biography, impassioned political protest, and her ancestors’ westward immigrations over the plains. Her poems engage with the ecology of place, whether that “place,” such as the Meadowlands of New Jersey, be rural, industrial, or urban.
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