[Ned Balbo]

Here are two poems I haven't shared here: "Autumn in Chrysalis-Time" and "Blessing the Bells" at Plough Quarterly.

You can find both if you scroll to the bottom at the link:
https://www.plough.com/en/authors/b/ned-balbo

Or you can click individually:

"Autumn in Chrysalis-Time":
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/cul...chrysalis-time

"Blessing the Bells":
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/cul...sing-the-bells

Audio's included if you like. Thanks!

[Alexandra Baez]

Ned, I enjoyed these thoroughly--as I did the "At the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine" series you posted about earlier, which I saw only recently. As in that series, there is such musicality in these two poems, and this quality has a literal aptness in your "Bells." I just love the way you arrived at the rhyme scheme for that poem. It's of special interest to me because one time I wrote a poem (about three entities intertwining) of three-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme following the order in which strings are moved in forming a braid, ending at the same sequence in which they began--a similar concept. Most importantly in your poem, its scheme works on a visceral level, conveying the same sort of otherworldly orderly-yet-random feel that bell changes do.

And in "Chrysalis," you've shown how evocative, varied, and expansive a 28-line poem with all the same end words can be.

Btw, to my surprise, I saw that you were present at the Cherry Tree launch reading the other night! I'm a Washington College alum and heard about it that way, but I hadn't expected to see people (you and Mary Meriam) that aren't alums (I checked ) there that I know of from the Sphere. I guess the journal must have a pretty wide reach; I myself only learned about it last week, but I guess that's what I get for not being a full-time literary person.

[Ned Balbo]

A. Baez, thanks for reading these so closely and thoughtfully (and for mentioning the heroic crown as well). I do think subliminal connections in sound are very powerful, even when they're the result of a little ingenuity -- a challenge we set for ourselves, just for fun.

"Chrysalis," too, was fun, especially when testing out line order, introducing new lines, cutting some, and listening for sonics.

The Cherry Tree launch! It was great to see some names or faces I knew. Jane & I have done some readings in Delmarva, and I attended mainly because she was taking part. That said, I had a great time and enjoyed the other readers, too. It's a fine journal.