TESS TAYLOR grew up in El Cerrito, California, attended Berkeley High School, and holds degrees from Amherst College and New York and Boston Universities. Her chapbook of poems, The Misremembered World was selected by Eavan Boland for the Poetry Society of America, and her work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Boston Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Memorious, and The New Yorker. As a scout for Anderson Literary Management in New York City, she developed book projects with writers and helped to shape book proposals. Tess currently writes “STANZA” the Barnes and Noble Review’s column on poets and poetry. She was the the 2010-2011 Amy Clampitt Resident in Lenox, MA. After 10 years in Brooklyn, she's moving to California.
18th CENTURY REMAINS
—Albemarle County
A wooded ridge a mile from Monticello.
A pit cut deeper than the plough-line.
Archaeologists unearthed the site by scanning
plantation land mapped field
for roughage, ash, traces of human dwelling.
We stand amid blown cypresses.
Inheritors of absences, we peer
into a 10 by 12 foot ledge.
Unearthed painstakingly, these shards:
two pipe stems, seeds, three greening buttons.
Centuries-old hearthstones are still charred,
as if the fire is only lately gone.
“Did they collect these buttons to adorn?” No one knows.
“Did they trade them, use them for barter?”
Silence again.
Light, each delicate pipe stem,
something someone smoked at last
against a sill-log wall that did for home,
where someone else collected
wedges of cast-off willowware.
Between vines, a tenuous cocoon.
A grassy berm that was a road.
The swaying clue
faint as relief at finding something left
of lives held here that now vanish off
like blue smoke plumes I suddenly imagine--
which are not, will not, cannot be enough.
9/27: It's Litquake time! I do like to rave about events, but I especially, especially, especially like to rave about these.
On October 13, join the fabulous Hollie Hardy and me for Flight of Poets at the Hotel Rex. We'll team up with six poets and a sommelier to pair delicious poetry with delightful wine. Want to know what it tastes like to drink noir poetry or zen haiku or a deep red sonnet? In this event poetry and wine are paired- we talk about the poems in terms of the wine and the vines in terms of the verses. Get your tickets early at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/193193
And I'd be so delighted to see you also when I read with Daniel Handler and Matthew Zapruder at LitCrawl on October 15 at the Latin American Club. Details about that reading here: http://litcrawl.org/sf/events/event/mcsweeney%E2%80%99s-the-believer-present/
5/10: A couple of great things to share. First a piece from the NYTimes about the joys of farming with oxen: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/dining/04oxen.html
Then a three upcoming readings- two readings on May 13 in Salem, Massachusetts as part of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival:http://masspoetry.org/
Then one reading as part of the launch of BEST NEW CALIFORNIA WRITING! In the Bay Area, I'll read a love song to my home town, May 25. Stay posted.
4/5: It's my pleasure to share this review of the fabulous Maureen McLane, from this special poetry issue of the Boston Review: http://bostonreview.net/BR36.2/tess_taylor_maureen_n_mclane.php
2/1: Something fun and funny, courtesy of Daniel Nester:
http://wewhoareabouttodie.com/2010/11/19/getting-to-know-tess-taylor/
1/31: It's a bitter winter, but I'm looking forward to a few neat spring events. I've left the Berkshires, but I'm looking forward to this awesome panel on "first loves" with Leslie Harrison and Katie Peterson at the Edith Wharton's home, The Mount, in Lenox Massachusetts. Deets:
http://www.edithwharton.org/events-detail.php?record=68
And later this spring I'll be reading twice at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival: http://masspoetry.org/the-festival/. Stay tuned!
9/19: Fall readings announced, in California. On October 6, Tess pairs wine with great local poets as part of LITQUAKE at Hotel Rex. On October7, she's teaching and reading at Monterey Peninsula College. On October 9, she's reading with Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Robin Ekiss at a San Francisco Laundromat. Come on out.
6/14: Summer readings announced! July 25, 3:30 pm at the Mount, Lenox, MA, and August 23, 7pm, Bryant Park, NYC. Hope to see you there.
5/10: The reviews are in! Well, in the Articles section, that is. All the reviews back to 2000 are in there, with essays to follow next.
5/9: Launched the new website! It's very much under construction, but please check back daily and see all the new info!
On October 13, join the fabulous Hollie Hardy and me for Flight of Poets at the Hotel Rex. We'll team up with six poets and a sommelier to pair delicious poetry with delightful wine. Want to know what it tastes like to drink noir poetry or zen haiku or a deep red sonnet? In this event poetry and wine are paired- we talk about the poems in terms of the wine and the vines in terms of the verses. Get your tickets early at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/193193
And I'd be so delighted to see you also when I read with Daniel Handler and Matthew Zapruder at LitCrawl on October 15 at the Latin American Club. Details about that reading here: http://litcrawl.org/sf/events/event/mcsweeney%E2%80%99s-the-believer-present/
5/10: A couple of great things to share. First a piece from the NYTimes about the joys of farming with oxen: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/dining/04oxen.html
Then a three upcoming readings- two readings on May 13 in Salem, Massachusetts as part of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival:http://masspoetry.org/
Then one reading as part of the launch of BEST NEW CALIFORNIA WRITING! In the Bay Area, I'll read a love song to my home town, May 25. Stay posted.
4/5: It's my pleasure to share this review of the fabulous Maureen McLane, from this special poetry issue of the Boston Review: http://bostonreview.net/BR36.2/tess_taylor_maureen_n_mclane.php
2/1: Something fun and funny, courtesy of Daniel Nester:
http://wewhoareabouttodie.com/2010/11/19/getting-to-know-tess-taylor/
1/31: It's a bitter winter, but I'm looking forward to a few neat spring events. I've left the Berkshires, but I'm looking forward to this awesome panel on "first loves" with Leslie Harrison and Katie Peterson at the Edith Wharton's home, The Mount, in Lenox Massachusetts. Deets:
http://www.edithwharton.org/events-detail.php?record=68
And later this spring I'll be reading twice at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival: http://masspoetry.org/the-festival/. Stay tuned!
9/19: Fall readings announced, in California. On October 6, Tess pairs wine with great local poets as part of LITQUAKE at Hotel Rex. On October7, she's teaching and reading at Monterey Peninsula College. On October 9, she's reading with Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Robin Ekiss at a San Francisco Laundromat. Come on out.
6/14: Summer readings announced! July 25, 3:30 pm at the Mount, Lenox, MA, and August 23, 7pm, Bryant Park, NYC. Hope to see you there.
5/10: The reviews are in! Well, in the Articles section, that is. All the reviews back to 2000 are in there, with essays to follow next.
5/9: Launched the new website! It's very much under construction, but please check back daily and see all the new info!
Thanks to Jonah Schulz for the header and overall design.
