caroline o'connor thomas
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etc.

bumper sticker idea

Honk if you loved Sylvia Plath as a young poet because you recognized her raw power and had not yet been taught by misogyny that “Confessional” poets were to be regarded as lesser poets because of their status as either or all: emotional, woman, self disclosing, etc. but then you come full circle to Plath ten years after your formal education has ended and you are a safe distance from unlearning instinct which seems more and more to do with control and less and less to do with skill or talent and your dear friend reads an excerpt to you from Rachel Zucker’s “what we talk about when we talk about the confessional and what we should be talking about” and your other friend says when she learned she actually loved Plath after years of avoiding her due to internalized misogyny she realized she was a “goddess, fully in her power” and you think hell yeah and your other friend reads “Morning Song” aloud and you feel the first line is etched into your being (still, or forever) and no one can fuck with that perfect, devastating poem.

“Love set you going like a fat gold watch.”

Caroline O'Connor Thomas
intermountain west, 2023

Golden Eagle Inn, Jackson, WY

Glacier National Park, Montana

Paradise, Montana

Eden, Idaho

Upper Little Zig Zag River, Mt. Hood, Oregon

Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

Kintla Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana

Teton National Park, Wyoming

Going to the Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana

Miracle Mile, Mt. Hood, Oregon

Caroline O'Connor Thomas