Sharon Tracey

Poet, Writer and Editor

Art is a parallel harmony with nature

—Paul Cézanne

About

Sharon Tracey is a poet and editor based in western Massachusetts.

Her full-length poetry collections include Chroma, inspired by five centuries of women artists (forthcoming from Shanti Arts) and What I Remember Most is Everything (All Caps Publishing, 2017). Her poems have appeared in The Worcester Review, Mom Egg Review, Tule Review, and The Ekphrastic Review among others. Her reviews have appeared in Rain Taxi and Cider Press Review. Art and nature are recurring themes in her work. She has previously served as a director of research communications and environmental programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and holds an MPP from the University of California Berkeley. She currently serves on the board of Perugia Press.

Works

All Caps Publishing, 2017

available on Amazon

Publications in Print and Online

2021 Full-length poetry collection, Chroma, five centuries of women artists (forthcoming from Shanti Arts)

2021 Poems “Derek Drove the John Deere Tractor,” and “After the Wildfire" (forthcoming in Pirene’s Fountain,

Vol. 14, Issue 22

2020 Poems “Outside the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles,” “An early hour is a good hour,”and

“To All the Starlings” in Terrain (forthcoming)

2020 Poems "Empirical Construction, Istanbul” and “The Fortune Teller” in Silkworm 13 (forthcoming)

2020 Poem "First Anniversary" in Straw Dog Pandemic Poetry (forthcoming)

2020 Poem “I have eaten geographies" in SWWIM

2020 Poem “The Outermost House” in From the Farther Shore (Bass River Press, forthcoming)

2020 Poem "The Pines" in 30 Poems in November Anthology

2020 Poem “Self-Portrait with Black Background” in The Ekphrastic Review (January 2020)

2019 Poem "Frescoed Clouds" in The Skinny Poetry Anthology (Cherry Castle Publishing 2019)

2019 Poem “Sunrise Run in Zion” in The Worcester Review (Vol. 40, No. 1 & 2)

2019 Book review of The Davids Inside David in Rain Taxi Review (Vol. 24, No. 3, Fall 2019)

2019 Poems “The Dryer, the Birds and the Plumber” and “The Deployment of Bees” in Silkworm 12

2019 Poem "Waiting for the Show That Is Morning" in Molecule (Inaugural September issue)

2019 Book Review of The Bones of Winter Birds in Cider Press Review (Vol. 21, Issue 2)

2019 Poem “Walk in a Winter Storm” in A Constellation of Kisses (Terrapin Books 2019)

2019 Poem "On Me Fait Signe" in The Ekphrastic Review (June 2019)

2019 Poem "5 PM" in SWWIM Every Day (May 2019)

2019 Poem "Godbird"in Tule Review (2019)
2019 Poem "Solo Hike on the Wilderness Coastal Trail" in Mom Egg Review (Vol. 17, 2019)

2019 Short Fiction "Same Day Appointment" in LINEA (Vol. I, No. I, 2019)

2019 Poems “Self-Portrait" and “Fishes” in Voice of Eve (Issue 4, February 2019)
2019 Poem "Send Me a Photo of the Bottom of Your Shoes" in 30 Poems in November Anthology

2018 Poem "Un Mundo" in Forth (November 2018)

2018 Poems "Elegy for Doris" and "What the Poverty Grass Said along the Edges of Route 66"
in Silkworm 11
2018 Poem "Flower Poem in Two Parts"in SPANK the CARP (Pond 44 October 2018)

2018 Poem "C-5 Galaxy Flying North Over South Amherst" in Compass Roads Anthology (Spring 2018)
2018 Poem "170,000 Refugees Arrived in Italy Last Year" in Wordpeace (Winter/Spring 2018)

2018 Poem “Waiting in Line to be Added to the Endangered Species List” in Canary (No. 40, Spring 2018)

2018 Poem "Self-Portrait Hesitating between Music and Painting" in Light: A Journal of Photography and
Poetry (Issue 6–Muse, Spring 2018)

2018 Poem "The Poetry Coat" in 30 Poems in November Anthology

2018 Poem “Clothesline: Idomeni Camp in Greece” in Common Ground Review (Vol. 19, No.2 Fall/Winter)

2017 Poem “Fish Who Grow Into Girls” in 56 Days of August Anthology (Fall 2017)

2017 Poems "I Have No Shadow," "Judith Slaying Holofernes" and "A Nun" in The Ekphrastic Review (Fall 2017)
2017 Poems “Maria Sibylla Merian Speaks on Metamorphosis” and “Self-Portrait by Paula Medersohn-Becker”
in Ekphrasis (Vol. 7 No. 6 Fall/Winter 2017)

2017 Book Review of Cutting Room in Rain Taxi Review (Vol. 22, No. 3, Fall 2017)

2017 Poems “Small Extinctions” and “Night Meditation” in Silkworm 10

2017 Full-length poetry collection, What I Remember Most Is Everything (All Caps Publishing 2017)
2017 Poem “30 Days in November” in 30 Poems in November Anthology

2016 Poem “Green Flies Eat Peaches” in Haiku Journal

2016 Poems “Summertime” and “Frescoed Clouds” in The Skinny Poetry Journal

2016 Poem “Migration of Desire” in Naugatuck River Review

2016 Poems “The Motion of Magnitude” and “Welcome” in Silkworm 9

2016 Poem “Luna Moth” in 30 Poems in November Anthology

Poems

A Few Poems . . .

Godbird

Limosa limosa, you black-tailed

godwit, long-legged prober

migratory mud wader

you seem a god on speed

slurping up plump polychaetes

& mollusks to double your weight,

record holder for the longest flight

ever tracked by satellite:

New Zealand-China-Alaska

& back again, no changing planes

no baggage checked nor claimed

high-tailing it over the Mai Po Marsh

the Yellow River a squirt of murky mustard

glimpsed through smog as you soar

over soggy hills and bogs

what full-steam-ahead stamina

no fear of flight like some of us

sitting in a chrome capsule

aloft on the other side of the world

cutting through cumulus & leaving contrails,

wondering how this makes any sense

gripping the armrests

& praying

keep us safe from ourselves

as the flight attendant calls us to attention:

please fasten your seatbelts
we are experiencing some turbulence

This poem first appeared in Tule Review

Migration of Desire

September died
stiff knees on stalks

I flew, already late

milkweed fluff

whipped white

winging southwest

to Mexico

this mountain

fir forest

this teeming tree

please come sun
with a cloth

to dry me

absorbing

as a fine powder

would

to warm

my muscles

frost crystals

my mortal wound

bring me

my breath

trachea tunneling

my body

my eye an oracle

the drops so

heavy

on my shoulders

cling as

color

to skin

so ready

this tongue

to drink dew

again

This poem first appeared in the Naugatuck River Review

Summertime

In raging heat I wear a dress of linen

beaten

stalks

scotched

fibers

beaten

nubs

heckled

slubs

beaten

I wear a dress of linen in raging heat

Frescoed Clouds

Again, they masquerade as solid objects

float

lacquered

opaque

glazed

float

light

packed

gold

float

They masquerade as solid objects, again

These poems first appeared in the Skinny Poetry Journal

Projects

Women in Art History - Painting and Poetry

My second full-length poetry collection, Chroma, inspired by the work of women artists painting over the past five centuries, is forthcoming from Shanti Arts. Featuring poems inspired by the work of 47 women artists, the poems are arranged in a series of galleries, taking the "viewer" back through time and history to view women making art. Some were well-known within their circles and times, others worked in relative obscurity. The youngest died at 26, the oldest at 101; some are painting at this very moment. Here are links to a few of the featured artists and paintings.

Un Mundo (Ángeles Santos, 1929) in Forth

Self-Portrait with Black Background (Helene Schjerfbeck, 1915) in The Ekphrastic Review

I Have No Shadow (Kay Sage, 1940) in The Ekphrastic Review

Readings and Activities

Readings

2019 30 Poems in November /Center for New Americans, Smith College

2019 Silkworm 12 Launch, Lily Library, Northampton

2019 Northampton 2019 Art and Poetry Biennial, Forbes Library, Northampton

2019 Mom Egg Review Issue 17 Launch, Poets House, New York City

2018 30 Poems in November/Center for New Americans, Smith College

2018 Silkworm 11 Launch, Lily Library, Florence

2018 Compass Roads / Straw Dogs, The Book Mill, Montague