Joyce Sutphen
Who is Joyce Sutphen
Joyce Sutphen (born August 10, 1949) is an American poet who served as Minnesota's Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2021. She was the state's second laureate, appointed by Governor Mark Dayton in August, 2011 to succeed Robert Bly. Sutphen is professor emerita of English at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
Life
Sutphen was raised in Saint Joseph, Minnesota, and currently resides in the city of Chaska. She holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, including her Ph.D. in Renaissance Drama.
Her first book of poetry, Straight Out of View (Beacon Press, 1995), won the Barnard New Women's Poets Prize. Her second, Coming Back to the Body (Holy Cow! Press, 2000), was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award, and her third, Naming the Stars (2004), a...
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Joyce Sutphen Poems
- Crossroads
The second half of my life will be black
to the white rind of the old and fading moon.
The second half of my life will be water
over the cracked floor of these desert years.
...
- The Farm
My father's farm is an apple blossomer.
He keeps his hills in dandelion carpet
and weaves a lane of lilacs between the rose
and the jack-in-the-pulpits.
...
- Evening Angelus
I have forgotten the words,
and therefore I shall not conceive
of a mysterious salvation, I shall
not become a tall lily and bloom
...
- Just For The Record
It wasn't like that. Don't imagine
my father in a feed cap, chewing
a stem of alfalfa, spitting occasionally.
...
- The Aunts
I like it when they get together
and talk in voices that sound
like apple trees and grape vines,
...
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Joyce Sutphen Quotes
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Comments about Joyce Sutphen
- Arjanda: hanging up
by joyce sutphen
in fourteen sonnets
- Visiblegoldrn: i will toss my string of keys into a deep
well and old letters into the grate.
the second half of my life will be ice
breaking up on the river, rain
soaking the fields, a hand
held out, a fire,
and smoke going
upward, always up."
joyce sutphen - crossroads.
5/5
- Missconstrude: you need to be breathing
in order to eat paella and
drink sangria, and making love
is quite impossible without
a body, unless you are one
of those, given – like gold –
to spin in airy thinness forever.
“the idea of living” by joyce sutphen from modern love & other myths.
- Missconstrude: his breath comes out in clouds,
his fingers begin to ache, but
he skims off another layer
where the frost is forming
and begins to sing, "you are my
sunshine, my only sunshine."
"silo solo" by joyce sutphen, from first words
- Zaharaesque: "the second half of my life will be black
to the white rind of the old and fading moon.
the second half of my life will be water
over the cracked floor of these desert years."
joyce sutphen, crossroads
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