Christine Rhein
Our Corner Acre, April Afternoon
Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants
In the summer, when watering or weeding my flowerbeds, I marvel at my old perennials, at the way they rise from dormancy each year, sending up a few green shoots that quickly flourish into tall stems, lush leaves, bright flowers—blooms that delight and sustain me. I like to think that poetry, too, is a garden, of vast, tangled roots and tenacious growth, that poems bud and burst into blossom—when we write them, when we read them.
Christine Rhein is the author of Wild Flight, winner of the Walt McDonald Book Prize in Poetry (Texas Tech University Press). Her poems have appeared in journals including The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Rattle, and have been selected for anthologies including Best New Poets and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. A former automotive engineer, Christine lives in Brighton, Michigan.