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Reading and Writing and the Occasional Recipe

From February, 2002 to March, 2009 I wrote a column called City Type for The Boston Globe. The columns were conversations with Boston-area writers and poets and are archived here.

2002  •  2003  •  2004  •  2005  •  2006  •  2007
  2008  •  2009
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 poem of the month

future perfect

like untracked snow
the pages wait
the days aligned
in black and white
boxed like small gifts

the leisurely rounds of
full moons and crescents
turns of
equinox and solstice
weave through
the weft of the months and seasons

we are past dancing
at the turning of the earth
past burning junipers
into holy incense
past bearing shaking sacrifices
to the altar
our eyes lifted toward the moon

still the primal rite
owns my heart
bereft of wand or chalice
for the risky passage
bare under the guardian stars
I clutch my private totems

I pause on the brink
the sacred pages whispering
through my fingers
like the breath
before the curtain rises

Read more poems here.
 
readings

I will be a featured reader on Sunday, Feb. 12 at the 3rd annual Jewish Poetry Festival Temple Sinai, Brookline http://www.sinaibrookline.org/, 2:30

good news

Garrison Picks Ellen:
My poem, "Letter Home" is in Garrison Keillor's new anthology, "Good Poems, American Places." Hear him read it.

One of my poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize!

Here are two interviews I did, one on television and one for National Poetry Month (scroll down to April 30 to see it).

"Why I Write"--brief essays by poets, including me!

quote of the month

“Whether we are describing a king, an assassin, a thief, an honest man, a prostitute, a nun, a young girl, or a stallholder in a market, it is always ourselves that we are describing.”

— Guy De Maupassant

CenterPiece is a one-person play I have written and that I perform. It looks at the patchwork of life experiences we all share, from assimilating our family legends to learning about love and loss to finding our own voices and moving into the center of our lives. Click here for more info.
 
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©2004 Ellen Steinbaum

My photo on the home page is by Peter Urban.
The cover of my book, Afterwords, was designed by Kate Misail.
The painting on the cover of Afterwords is by Eric Sealine.
The painting on the cover of Container Gardening is by Faith Hochberg.

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