Author Archives: Christine Hemp

About Christine Hemp

Poet and writer Christine Hemp has aired her poems and essays on NPR’s Morning Edition; she has sent a poem of hers into space on a NASA mission to monitor the birth of stars; and her essays have appeared in such publications as the Iowa Review, Yale Anglers Journal, and the Boston Globe. Her awards include Harvard Extension School’s Conway Award for Teaching Writing, a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship for Literature, and an Iowa Review Award. Her poetry collection, That Fall, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011. Hemp teaches at the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

POEM OF THE WEEK: Tunneling

TUNNELING by Christine Hemp I have found my way down. Feverish, muddled, I dig deep through loam and stone. I jam my bleeding fingers behind stuck rocks, my [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: Phone Sax

PHONE SAX Debussy called it that aquatic instrument. Here on the very edge of a continent, the Pacific pulls down the sun, and I hear one reed singing. [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: The Cutting

                                  THE CUTTING Even in the dampened folds of my handkerchief the [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: Contraries

  CONTRARIES Yesterday, for instance, on the lake we saw two otters slip out and wrestle on the rocks. Their slick joy carried the August day. Until someone [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: Surrender

  SURRENDER Just like that truck on the exit ramp, I see the S-curve too late and my load inside begins to shift: A slumber party of fresh [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: Tunneling

This past weekend I attended a high school reunion, an adventure in time and space. Some of the people I’d actually known since kindergarten. In addition to our joys, [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: An Abstract Art

  AN ABSTRACT ART When the painter Kandinsky lay in hospital, aching from some mysterious complaint, he wept to think about the surgeon’s knife, about being wheeled into [..]

Poems and Ponderings

POEM OF THE WEEK: My Body Feels

     MY BODY FEELS My body feels fine with your body Your fine body feels with my body A full-bodied feeling to feel one Another (finally) my [..]

Poems and Ponderings

Today’s Hempsonian Feature: “Still Life” by Marilyn Abildskov from THE SUN

Click Paul Klee Painting to read the story  

Poems and Ponderings

Today’s Hempsonian News: A great poet has moved on…

DIGGING  by Seamus Heaney 1939-2103 Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the [..]

Poems and Ponderings