Category: Uncategorized

From Nomad’s End, published by Finishing Line Press, 2010

Learning to Be Drown Proof

Snatching a breath,
filling lungs and veins
with salt and memories,
holding it, I submerge
the whole of me under.

For hours I will do this:
hands sculling the water, legs
dancing, still attached
at the place of my hip.
The scene around me disappears and
I am in Naxos again
and it is harvest time.
Each tree selects its best and blackest olive.

I hold in the cup of my hand
the pages of my life, dog-eared,
wet from too much handling
and the long swim.

I turn to page one,
and the first phrase I learned, loving
the underdeveloped syllables, naming
the things I know: tooth, burden,
heart. I am myself, I say.

My body holds its shape
in the whirling pool of water,
now at the point of yielding,
a tree earning its rings.

Image courtesy of greeka.com

Reconnaissance, my newest poetry collection, will be released by Homebound Publications in April. Here is an advanced review by the exceptional poet John Surowiecki:

Looking out a train window, Randall Jarrell saw “the chairs and tables of the world.” The view from Amy Nawrocki’s metaphorical window — and the stuff of her latest book, Reconnaissance — is art, all kinds of art: Rothkos, Sargents, Dalis, tattoos, jazz records, Anaïs Nin, an old copy of Shelley, a statue of FDR. But while the subject matter is certainly interesting, even fascinating, it is Nawrocki’s clear, witty, gem-cut style that’s the book’s real subject. In these poems, a bonsai tree “pretends toward age,” the artwork of Sol Lewitt resists “tremors of an inexact hand,” an X-ray reveals “one of van Gogh’s sunflowers dying inside me, just beneath my ribs.” These are exquisite poems, but not rarified and frail, not afraid of the rougher light of ordinary day. Two poems,“Cimetìere du Père Lachaise” and “The man sitting next to me is reading The Idiot” are alone worth the price of admission. But it’s an elegant, wonderful book, cover to cover.

— John Surowiecki, author of Flies

Click John’s name to find his webpage and link to his works. He’s an amazing poet and I’m honored that he liked my work. I met him at UB’s Necessary Voices lecture where he read his work.

Thanks to Homebound Publications and Goodreads, you can win a signed copy of Four Blue Eggs. It’s signed by me, of course.Click either of the two links above. Support small, environmentally conscious publishers and the readers who love them and the writers who need them. Sign up today, and while you’re at it, add some (all?) of the other great titles to your book bag.

Here’s what poet Vivian Shipley says about the collection:

“As if she were a weaver at her loom creating a tapestry of Four Blue Eggs, Amy Nawrocki threads the death of her mother into poems that navigate the tension inherent between the heart and mind created by “the mind’s insufficient wiring.” Written with a lyrical but unsentimental voice, Nawrocki crisscrosses generations by describing tactile memories like peeling parsnips during January while “iglooed” from the cold. Each poem is underpinned with the tenderness Nawrocki displays in a powerful poem, “Threads,” where she keeps the cat from waking her mother while she is choosing a dress for her cremation.

“Always sensitive to the natural world, Nawrocki fears raccoons will encounter “tumult of oncoming tires.” What other poet has worried about the cypress that was felled to make red mulch for her azalea? In her struggle to navigate the world and cherish its beauty, in a particularly vivid poem about bees, she observes “What lasts is not the sting….what lasts is the internal honey.” Ultimately, teaching us to “flame into the now,” Four Blue Eggs ignites a candle that the heart and mind can follow.”

You can  review all of Vivian’s books on Goodreads.  Order them through your local bookseller like Byrd’s Books in Bethel.

This is from a few years ago (Sept. 2012). I’m reading “Still Life with Parsnips and Snow” at the Newtown Arts Festival. The poem won an honorable mention from the Newtowner Magazine’s International Poetry Contest. Winners were chosen by Dick Allen, who introduced the winning poems. The Arts Festival is an annual event at the Fairfield Hills Campus in Newtown, and a great way to celebrate the arts and visit my hometown.

Here’s a discussion about A History of Connecticut Food, hosted by Ann Nyberg and broadcast on Ann’s webcast NYBERG. The interview was filmed on Jan. 13, 2013.

Consider buying your copy at your local independent bookstore. My favorite in the state is Byrd’s Books.

The Fiddlehead’s Return, which is featured in Four Blue Eggs–

This reading is from a few years ago at the New Year’s Poetry Reading at Hamden’s Best Video.

Happy New Year!

I’m looking forward to the release of my next poetry collection, Reconnaissance. Preview all of the 2015 titles from Homebound Publications.

I’ve been doing squats for about 6 years, and this past week I reached the goal that inspired “Saving Myself from a Burning Building”. You can read the poem in Four Blue Eggs.