Thumbs up for my cento/sestina or sestina/cento, "The Bard"

My poem appears in Theresa M. Welford's anthology, The Cento: A Collection of Collage Poems (Red Hen Press, 2011).

From the reviewer (Oona, On Contemporary Poetry & Poetics):

This anthology gives the impression, too, that the cento is a form surprisingly open to mixture with other more rigid forms like villanelles, sestinas, sonnets, & pantoums, all of which make appearances here. Catherine Chandler-Oliveira's "The Bard," for example, is a sestina entirely composed of lines from Shakespeare ending in "away," "right," "to," "day," "night," & "true." One of the most straightforward remixes in the collection, this poem uses the relative consistency of Shakespeare's meter to advantage.

Glad and Sorry Seasons Among Best Selling Love Poetry - Canadian Books

Read who else is on the list HERE.

Four Poems in The Raintown Review

Issue 12.2

I'm pleased to say I have four sonnets ("Mrs. Moffat", "Phil", "Rip" and "Kitty Kramer") as a long poem, "One-Way Street" (aktma "The View from Nanny Brown's Front Porch"), in the latest issue of The Raintown Review.

Thanks to Anna and Quincy, Editors. 

Finalist Poem in Able Muse Review

I returned home from South America to find my contributor's copy among the mail. I'm pleased to see my Able Muse Write Prize for poetry (2014) finalist poem -- a two-part poem entitled "Discovery" (The Cassette and What You Kept) on pages 168 and 169 of Able Muse: A Review of Poetry, Prose & Art, Number 18, Winter 2014.

Thanks to final judge, Dick Allen, and to editor Alex Pepple.

The poems (one a sonnet, the other het-met) communicate my feelings upon clearing out my parnets' home after their deaths in 2011 and 2012.

Two Poems in Think

I’m very pleased to have two poems in the current issue of THINK, a wonderful literary journal published by Western State Colorado University.

The poems are:

"Resonance", a sonnet about letting go and maintaining equilibrium in the midst of chaos;  and
"Silverweed", a het-met poem about my reaction to receiving a devastating telephone call at 3 a.m. in June, 2012.

There are many fine poems by friends and colleagues in this issue. Enjoy!

Thanks to Christine Yurick, Editor.

Poem on Verse Daily

A colleague has just let me know that my poem, Sonnet Love, appeared on Verse Daily on Valentine's Day.

HERE's the link.

Thanks, Chris!

María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira

Street in Punta del Este, Uruguay, named after my favorite Uruguayan poet. Photo by Hugo Oliveira. February 2015

Today I discovered a street named after my favorite Uruguayan poet, María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira.


Below is my English translation of one of her sonnets, La estrella misteriosa, which deals with her poetic vocation. A close reading of the poem is HERE in my published paper on this wonderful poet, who paved the way for others such as Delmira Agustini and Juana de Ibarbourou.


The Mysterious Star


I know not where it is, but it beckons me,
oh mysterious star of changeless destiny! . . .
Its hidden blaze and secret, unseen flame
in holy silent echo calls my name.
And if at times I leave the beaten track,
with an unknown force it always pulls me back:
chimera, phoenix, oriflamme and glory,
or love, beyond reach, strange and transitory . . .
I walk forever down an empty street
behind the fatal star that guides my feet
but never, never, never shows its light!
And yet its light calls out, its silence charms;
it summons me, while in the dark, my arms
in blind, despairing hope drag through the night.


(translated by Catherine Chandler)