POETRY

Poetry is at the heart of all my writing. It informs the use of words, whether I'm writing prose or copy, features or fiction. My poems have been published in numerous state and national journals and anthologies, and I have been the recipient of a mini-fellowship for poetry from the Kansas Arts Commission. 

Chapbooks
​​Here the Water is Deep (Orange Hat Publishing)
​What I Learned in Kansas (Port Yonder Press)
​Benthos (Wolfsong Publications)
​Editor for Hear My Voice: Poems of the Unheard Girls From the House of Love (Orange Hat)

Other Projects

• ​Co-Editor of community program, One Vision: A Fusion of Art, Poetry & Dance
• Organizer of community poetry readings
  
• Facilitator of poetry classes & workshops
  
• Former member of Wasteland Poets (disbanded)
  
• Founding member of Grace River Poets
  
• Long-time member of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets ​​

SAMPLE POEM

What I Learned in Kansas
I learned to tell the difference
between the smell of alfalfa and wheat,
to note the breeds of Charolais and Hereford;
I learned the purpose of burning
the pastures to bring life again,
green and tender as any hope.
I learned how hard the wind blows,
driving the prairie grasses
into undulating oceans
of whispering songs,
to hear the swelling moans
of labor hard under
the relentless sun.
And I learned the stillness
of the vast night sky,
broad as here to here,
crammed with stars
and silent, flickering lightning
as I shivered.
I learned that my lips could
recite the words,
the secrets of the prairie's strength
and that I, too, could
swallow those truths,
feel them expand
rising and rising like the hills
to meet the clean line of horizon,
the moment of flight.
I learned in Kansas
the difference between living
and existing, 
loving and emptiness,
that the heart can wander
from Olathe to Liberal
and still find its way home.
  Copyright 2018 Liz Rhodebeck