![\"300px-Jan_Vermeer_-_Girl_Reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window\"](\"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/300px-Jan_Vermeer_-_Girl_Reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window.jpg\")
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http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Girl_Reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n One word, and then another, falls in line<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n like geese wedging their way down the sky,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n a vast scroll of paper yet unwritten. I<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Roll a sheet in the typewriter, and begin<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n again, to try and pin down what\u2019s elusive,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n some insistent bird that whistles from a bush,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHere, here, here I am,\u201d then vanishes,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n while I am left to struggle with the narrative.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Like \u201cGirl Reading a Letter at an Open Window\u201d,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I wish the light would flood in from the left,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n paint me slickly gold, tell me what comes next.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n But I am in the dark, no map, no text,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n just following my heart as night falls soft,<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n covers us with her obsidian wing.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cVI\u201d by Barbara Crooker. \u201cGirl Reading a Letter at an Open Window\u201d. The reference is to the painting of the same title by Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). See also \u201cStill Life\u201d, by Annie Finch.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Barbara Crooker\u2019s sonnets have appeared in magazines such as The Schuylkill Valley Journal, riverrun, Poets On: and Fringe. Largely a free verse writer, she believes that sonnets are another tool in the writer\u2019s paintbox. Her work has been widely anthologized, in places like Poetry: an Introduction (Bedford\/St. Martin\u2019s) and Good Poems for Hard Times (Garrison Keillor, editor,Viking Penguin). Her book, Radiance, was winner of the 2005 Word Press First Book Award, and Line Dance (Word Press, 2008), won the 2009 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. Her forthcoming book Gold. Barbara Crooker appears (2013 or 2014) in the Poeima Poetry Series of Cascade Books, a division of Wipf & Stock. Website: <\/b><\/span><\/span>www.barbaracrooker.com<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This sonnet is pre-published with the permission of the Editor-in-chief from:Richard Vallance, editor-in-chief. The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes: Anthology of sonnets of the early third millennium = Le Ph\u00e9nix renaissant de ses cendres : Anthologie de sonnets au d\u00e9but du troisi\u00e8me mill\u00e9naire. Friesen Presse, Victoria, B.C., Canada. \u00a9 2013. approx. 240 pp. ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-4602-1700-9 Price: $28.00 Paperback: 978-1-4602-1701-6 Price: $18.00 e-Book: 978-1-4602-1702-3 Price: TBA<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 300 sonnets & ghazals in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese & Persian. Selected sonnets are pre-published by our permission in Poetry Life & Times (UK) which has exclusive sole rights prior to the publication of the anthology itself. Readers may also contact Richard Vallance, Editor-in-Chief, at: vallance22@gmx.com for further information. <\/b> http:\/\/vallance22.hpage.com\/<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0***<\/p>\n