Poetry

“. . . you can / not make any hard and fast rule / concerning the morality of crawling into / soup nor anything else . . . “ -Archy, from clarence the ghost, in Archy and Mehitabel, by Don Marquis.

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Our poetry selections found on this website represents a small part of our poetry that reflects on events and observations in our lives; other poems simply reflect some of the less complicated textures of our lives in general. To see poem titles, click on the "Poetry v" drop-down menu and select "Sarah Fairchild" or "Mark Fairchild". ... or, though it is a bit more messy, simply search on a name in quotes and our poems will appear, listed by title.

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You will find that Sarah wrote a lot of excellent poetry. On the other hand, I have no idea about the quality of my own poetry. No one who has ever read it has given me any serious feedback, either good, bad, or constructively critical, so I can only assume it is bad -- but I stress I do not know that: I like it. 

Certainly, I will never make any money from it, and Sarah could not use the money if it were sent to her. She did receive some in her lifetime . . not much, but some. You decide for yourself what it is all "worth". We both hope that the value you find in it is spiritual and emotional. I hope it is all good, and worth reading.

Sarah was by far the better poet, having received her master's degree in English, with an emphasis in creative writing at UNL, under Greg Kuzma (who also introduced us socially) and Ted Kooser. You will find much more of my poetry here, but that is because I have not been able to find most of Sarah's poetry since she died, for various reasons, and now I cannot ask her where the remainder are.

I have also placed a section on Black Star Press here. It simply describes what it is and how it came about.  I have listed every poet, poem, artist, and artwork that was published in the Nebraska Poets Calendars from 1994 through 2012, and highlighted where each Poet laureate had poems published in it. 

Finally, I am presenting here the entire collection of CLPP Renga written from 2011 through 2014, as well as some material that attempts to put it in perspective. I hope to resume these sessions someday if I can find more people interested in pursuing them. This poetry does not even pretend to be all good or polished, but it was a creative attempt to reach our collective unconscious. 

I am still attempting to transcribe, copy, and organize the poems for these web pages. If they suddenly vanish, look again; try searching for the author's name, as they might have simply been moved to another subsection. 

To review my (or our poetry--Sarah's and mine) use the dropdown menues at the top of the screen; OR, if you remember some title or phrase in the text, use the SEARCH function (the magnifying glass icon in the top right of the page). Most of my poetry is only available to other poets for critique.--MF 

If you wish, check back occasionally as I might add more poems to the online selections, organize them differently, or revised them.