Professor Emily Bobo talks with Dr. Filiz Cicek about writing poetry as a way of understanding life and creating meaning, and the discomfort that arises from it at times, and its function, for her and the readers. Audio.

Audio. Corner of Disappearing Names Music by Kevin Bobo. Text by Emily Bobo. Performed and recorded by Troy University Collegiate Singers (2014). At the corner of Headstone Street,             And Disappearing Lane, Heat rattles the leaves of the Redwood tree             And burns the evergreens ever-brown. A young girl’s tears once kissed these stones,            …

In today’s episode, Professor Emily Bobo talks with Dr. Cicek about recording her truth(s) through poetry, understanding how truth works and shares a section of a poem from her book Instrumental. Audio.

“Each one of these tales packs a gut punch as it shows us that contemporary America is as scary as any ancient, witch-filled forest. Loved the appropriately-Grimm illustrations as well” (clb).

Andrew Marvel wrote, “had he world enough and time,” he would devote “Two hundred [years] to adore each [of his mistress’s] breast[s].” Audio. Dr. Bobo reads “Ode to My Mother and Our Little Breasts,” “lying in the MRI like lying on a guillotine,” “Postcard to my aunt who died of breast cancer,” and “Our Lady of Wheat.”  …

“Instrumental is sometimes tough — there is anger and sadness and hurt —but it’s so authentically told that the collection is remarkably beautiful,” (Christine Brandel). For the full review at clbwrites.com, click here.

Available NOW from Hemlock House Press on Amazon.com: Instrumental (poems) by Emily Bobo $15.00     Tattle Tales (flash fiction) by Emily Bobo with illustrations by Amy Brier $12.00     Available on Amazon 2/1/2019.  

Audio.  Three poems by Emily Bobo recorded on WFIU’s The Poets Weave: “Things You Should Know About Me,” “Furrowed,” and “The Lies We Need.” Photo by Charity Heggestad at the Joy of Film. Emily Dickinson put two day lilies into Higginson’s hand and said, “‘These are my introduction’ and ‘Forgive me if I am frightened.’…

Text. Published 12/4/18 in the 10th issue of After Happy Hour Review (28-29). “I. Gently used baby / grand. Rebuilt soundboard. Keys trill / grief like Woolf’s sparrow.”

Video.  “Tattle Tales” by Emily Bobo re-imagine Grimms’ fairy tales. Performed as part of Ivy Tech’s Writing Across Communities, Nov. 2018.