I don’t have much time to read right now, but I never miss this blog, written by poet and teacher Martin Achatz, also known as Saint Marty. He is a saint to me because he reviewed my books Beauty Lessons and Flame with eloquence and kindness, sharing three of my poems with his readers. Here are excerpts followed by links to his full posts.
Flame
“Godbey is fearless, taking the ugly aspects of a life and searching them for beauty. Her verse is full of light and heat, soot and cold. Her lines connect on a level deep as the San Andreas, where all of us groan and split against the shifting plates of the heart. Flame is hot. It burns the fingers, scalds the tongue. And it leaves afterimages, bright ghosts that hover in the corners of memory.” Read more…
Beauty Lessons
”Beauty Lessons is a stunning collection, full of the pain of childhood, the wars of adult life. Literally, some of the poems in this collection take my breath away. Mostly narrative, these poems tell stories of growing up, of learning what it takes to move from girlhood to womanhood. At times, the poems are wistful. At times, the poems are brutal. Always, the poems connect the reader to the fragile tapestry of human existence. Through her work, Godbey reminds us of our common need for connection and love, and the terrible/wonderful cost of that connection.” Read more…
Yes, I’ve been a bit busy. My poem “Burn, Baby, Burn” appears in the new issue of Dressing Room Poetry Journal, with a nod to poet Jim Tilley.
I wrote a story in Orlando magazine about Florida’s new official perfume. I bet you didn’t know there was such a thing. It’s part of the state’s 500th birthday celebration, Viva Florida 500.
Also, I was profiled, along with five other Central Florida poets, in Orlando Arts magazine.
Click away, my friends.
I’ve just learned that Main Street Rag is going to publish my full-length poetry book, Hold Still, later this year. I’m surprised and delighted that it’s been picked up so quickly. I’ll pass along its release date and other details when I know them.
Read one of my new poems, “Not That Kind of Girl,” in the debut issue of the Dressing Room Poetry Journal.
My poem “The Dressmaker’s Widower” was a finalist for the 2012 William Stafford Award for Poetry and will be published in Rosebud. I have a villanelle and sonnet in the current issue of Mezzo Cammin and a poem in LILIPOH: The Spirit in Life. My poem “Platitudes” was a finalist for the 2012 Dogwood Poetry Award and was published in Dogwood. I have new work appearing soon in South Florida’s Tigertail 10th anniversary anthology Sun-Struck Matches as well as the anthologies The Art of Survival and The Cancer Poetry Project 2.
But wait … there’s more. Read my story about a group of strong, funny women in Orlando magazine at Grown Ass Woman Brigade.
