Betsy Sholl, a former poet laureate of Maine, is author of several collections of poetry, including Otherwise Unseeable (2014). 

Posts By This Author

Poem: Petition

by Betsy Sholl 07-29-2016
Andreas Gradin / Shutterstock

Andreas Gradin / Shutterstock

       

Second Line

by Betsy Sholl 03-14-2013
A poem

Blindfolded and gagged, tossed in the back
of a car—it's how they gather up young men
and after tire irons and chains, leave some

lying in the road like dirt, rained on all night.
Some are bundled-up, tossed off a bridge
into the river whose muddy swirls warn:

kick, fight, breathe, twist your arms free.
Some do. They rise, spit out the rags
stuffed in their mouths, limp back to town,

and one begins to sing—slow at first— Lord,
I want to be in that number
... Another moans
a low muted tone where words won't go.

Learning to Love the Sky

by Betsy Sholl 06-01-1986

(For Margaret)

Tonight I Am Mending Clothes

by Betsy Sholl 06-01-1981

I use old cloth on the knees, stitch boldly.
The dress I hem more carefully
camouflaging the thread, an animal in grass.

Honor the Aged

by Betsy Sholl 08-01-1980

You may be saved yet.
Your grandmother's praying.
She's saying to anyone who'll listen:
Throw out the curtains. Stop
coaxing wind down from the trees.