Janet Bowdan

Janet Bowdan’s poems have appeared in APR, Crazyhorse, Verse, Denver Quarterly, The Pinch, Free State Review, Peacock Journal, Best American Poetry 2000, Poetry Daily and many other journals. The editor of Common Ground Review, she teaches at Western New England University and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with her husband, son, and sometimes a lovely stepdaughter or two. She was also in the chorus of Valley Light Opera’s H.M.S Pinafore where the real Jamie and Rachel fell in love. The art of Liza Lou can be seen in Liza Lou (Smart Art Press); her kitchen was on display in the Smith College Art Museum.

Jamie & Rachel in Liza Lou’s Kitchen

by Janet Bowdan

It feels like coming home
only enhanced—like everything really is
easy, like the advertising illustrations:
housewife in heels, shawl-collared dress with
nipped-in waist and A-line skirt
dazzling beholders as she sweeps dust-
bunnies into a pan. The pan is beaded,
the broom bristles and handle and all
are beaded, even the dust-bunnies are beaded
(and shaped like starfish) (More …)

Beach Boy Flies a Kite

by Janet Bowdan


It’s windier than the day before but
they have the kite, a multi-color box
and he’s never flown a kite before,
only seen Charlie Brown frantically
running, even through a house, to
keep that diamond shape up and not
swooping down on him or tangling
everyone up in its line. And wonder
of wonders, this kite, labeled “easy
to fly,” goes up, stays up, pulls away
so they let out the string. It stays up!
The ocean crashes into the shore,
the kite crashes down unharmed; they
take it up again. Later that day, time
to go home: boy curls up under a blanket(More …)