My body of work is very similar to my corporal body. I often employ traditional forms (Spanx/dieting) but just as often revert to a more copious mode (cake/lazy afternoons). In that I wear little makeup (sensitive skin/feminist stance) I use few purely poetic flourishes except for rhyme-both internal and end line (lipstick/nail polish) conceding to self-conscious artifice. Perhaps because I grew up Catholic, I am drawn to acrostics (crosses) and punitive syllable counting (the rosary). I am interested in bodies seen and not seen (bikinis, muumuus, the dead and not-yet-born), poems written and yet-to-be-written. Holy ghost poems that cannot be read but only felt.

About this poem
"Every once in a while a person unfamiliar with contemporary literature asks me a question along the lines of, 'What is your poetry like? What's it about?' Having recently fumbled through an answer yet once again, I jealously thought of the beauty of a painter's 'artist statement.' That was the impetus for this poem."
-Denise Duhamel

About Denise Duhamel
Denise Duhamel is the author of "Blowout" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013). She teaches at Florida International University and lives in Hollywood, Fla.

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(c) 2016 Denise Duhamel. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate