Poet Francine Marie Tolf poems page



			Tiger Lilies
			An island of long-necked tiger lilies inspired this poem, but drafts evolved from a literal description of flowers to a reflection on our ability – lilies, insects, humans - to “live on fire / unnoticed.”




			And the Sky
			And the Sky
			I believe, like Lucille Clifton, that “poetry doesn’t have to be fact, it only has to be true.” Yet this moment came to me pretty much as I describe. Gifts enter our lives, gifts depart. I had to write about this one.




			Connecting the Stars
			“Connecting the Stars” took years to write, because I thought for years that the painting in the poem (“The White Horse,” which hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago) was its focus. I finally figured out that the poem was about something larger, less definable, more fragile.