Jacksonville, Vermont

Jacksonville, Vermont

By Jason Shinder 1955–2008 Jason Shinder
Because I am not married, I have the skin of an orange
 
that has spent its life in the dark. Inside the orange I am blind.
I cannot tell when a hand reaches in and breaks
 
the atoms of the blood. Sometimes a blackbird will bring the wind
 
into my hair. Or the yellow clouds falling on the cold floor
are animals fighting each other
 
out of their drifting misery. All the women I have known
 
have been ruined by fog and the deer crossing the field at night.

Jason Shinder, “Jacksonville, Vermont” from Stupid Hope. Copyright © 2009 by Jason Shinder. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press. www.graywolfpress.org

Source: Stupid Hope (Graywolf Press, 2009)

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Poet Jason Shinder 1955–2008

POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic

Subjects Living, Life Choices, The Body, Relationships, Men & Women

Poetic Terms Free Verse, Imagery

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Biography

Born in Brooklyn, poet and editor Jason Shinder grew up there and in Merrick, New York. He earned a BA at Skidmore College.
 
Shinder is the author of three collections of poetry: the posthumously published Stupid Hope (2009), Among Women (2001), and Every Room We Ever Slept In (1993), a New York Public Library Notable Book. In a review of Among Women, poet Carol Muske-Dukes observed, “I don’t know of any male poet that . . .

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SUBJECT Living, Life Choices, The Body, Relationships, Men & Women

POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic

Poetic Terms Free Verse, Imagery

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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