Boening, Justin 2016
You start to sing.
Your voice carrying from the house.
The words familiar, though I cannot make out the words.
Your voice a field, though there are animals in the field.
A rain begins in the leaves and ends in the leaves.
– Justin Boening, “Learning to Pray Again”
Read this interview with Justin Boening from The Adroit Journal:
Issue Twenty: A Conversation with Justin Boening | The Adroit Journal
Justin Boening is the winner of the National Poetry Series for his debut collection, Not on the Last Day, but on the Very Last. He is also a recipient of a Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize, a Bucknell University Stadler Fellowship, and a Poetry Society of America National Chapbook Fellowship for his chapbook, Self-Portrait as Missing Person.
It’s late. The hero has returend––
unhelpful as ever. He’s hiding out
in the neighbor’s orchard,
steering clear of the constable.
The citizens have left empty
all the houses, all the shops––
the screen doors hollow on hinges,
a porch swing hinging by a chain.
– Justin Boening, “The Game”
Watch Justin Boening read Care Package at SPECTRA Reading Series:
Justin Boening: Care Package
Midwest Writing Center sponsored SPECTRA poetry event, at Rozz-Tox, Rock Island, IL. 10 March 2016. Biography from Ryan Collins: “Justin Boening is the author of two books of poems-Not on the Last Day, But on the Very Last (Milkweed, 2016), which was selected for the National Poetry Series, and a chapbook, Self-Portrait as Missing Person (Poetry Society of America, 2013).
