Reading so many beautiful poems of gratitude and thanks-giving this week, I wanted to share this, from my last book, Crazing: Flotsam The storm drives all ashore—thrown stick with dogteeth, twig of twisted pine, thumbnail jellyfish with dark sails fallen, torn kelp, fouled ballast, soapy olivine foam. Everyone here has the same story. We are…
Welcome, everyone! I’ve changed the website a bit because I’ve been seeing lots of visitors, yay! and would like to make it easier to use and for you to find my poetry. Probably the best introduction to me and my work is this short video that was made on the winter solstice in 2014. So…
BODY SPEAKINGa writing workshop with Ruth ThompsonFebruary 21, 2015 Our histories are held in our bodies. Old patterns, wounds, self-limitations, ideas of what we can and cannot do – all are remembered by our bodies. In this workshop we practice listening to the stories our bodies have to tell and the “meaning” of our somatic…
I was so impressed by Claire Farley’s interview with me, and have talked so much about it, and referred to it so often, that I finally just asked permission to reprint it here. Thanks to TCJWW Editor Jennifer Carter, here it is: Interview: Ruth ThompsonJune 19, 2014 · by Claire Farley Ruth Thompson grew up…
The White Queen Comes the White Queen worryingand hurrying to keep up and losingher hairpins. Mind pieces slipout of their sockets. Because it is all held togetherwith hairpins —the old kind, meant to be invisible? And they were invisible.I didn’t know they were there holding my mind togetheruntil I startedto lose it. Someone whose name…
Myopia in the Afternoon What landscape is this? My flesh curvingover your bones, pectoral swellunder my cheek, darkness of tangled fur,and beyond that, the wet angled branch of a tree, and beyond that,something white, something pale blue.Call it tree and window,sky and snow. But what this is, so close at hand, I cannot say.This landscape…