Antonia Clark

I’ve worked most of my life as a medical writer and editor in academic, corporate, and professional settings. A lifelong reader and writer of poetry and fiction, I've taught both in community college and adult education programs. I also co-administer an online poetry forum, The Waters. My chapbook, Smoke and Mirrors (2013) comprises the poems that became the first section of Chameleon Moon (2014; reissued by Bellevue Books, 2019). Future titles from Bellevue Books include Dance Craze and Why My Body. I live in Vermont, love French picnics, and play French café music on a sparkly purple accordion.

Sample Poem from Chameleon Moon:

Amends

Regret lingers, niggles. Yellow lilies

on the table, gone brown in the vase.

The garden we talk about, endlessly,

but never begin, deterred by tough sod.

On the edge of the walk, the wheelbarrow

full of stones waits like an undelivered

apology. Within, the floor needs scrubbing

and only hands and knees will do the job.

I know that forgiveness is a simple meal—

a salad, a boiled potato, a glass of tea.

Easy to prepare, to offer. That the silence

afterward will satisfy, perhaps even nourish.