Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver

Casey Robb’s poetry collection Morning Glory Moon: A Weaving of Free Verse and Forms is a masterful work that includes sonnets, villanelles, ekphrastic poems, pantoums, blank verse, free verse, terzanelles, rondels, and rondelets, among others. That alone makes this book a manual for developing poets. Although crafted according to rules of rhyme, meter, repetition, and formulas, the poems are evocative. The forms in these poems do not dominate the content. Robb’s poems express universal truth. The four parts of the book include haunting stories, myths, and memories that explore grief, humor, aging, loss, death, and other themes of the human condition. To do so within formal poetic forms demonstrates impeccable skill. 

The book has four parts:

PART I: A DARKENING TIDE
PART II: ANCIENT SHADES & SHADOWS
PART III: A LIGHT TOUCH
PART IV: THE FLOWER VENDOR & OTHER FOLK

Sample Poems

Skara Brae*

(A Terzanelle)

Beneath a wintry wind, a village lay
in sand, in secret till an arctic storm
blew back the slender shroud of Skara Brae.

The burrowed houses kept the children warm
and safe beneath the sod, the dung, debris,
in sand, in secret, till an arctic storm

disturbed their dreaming. Deep within the lee
of midden-mound, walls of stacking stone,
safe beneath the sod, the dung, debris,

they huddled in furs by a fire, heard the moan
of the icy island gale. From heather bed
in midden-mound, by walls of stacking stone,

they bore the blustery winter overhead,
entombed, until the final chilly gust—
the icy island gale. From heather bed

they vanished. Homes deserted to the dust
beneath a wintry wind, the village lay
entombed, until the final chilly gust
blew back the slender shroud of Skara Brae.

*A neolithic village in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland, occupied 3200-2200 BC, exposed by a storm in 1850: eight houses built with stone slabs, inside mounds of earth and rubbish for insulation.

© Casey Robb

Adam Picked the Apple

(A Rondel)

In the beginning, Adam picked the apple,
blamed it on Eve, told Father. End of story.
It spread, this grave, mistaken allegory.
In the Garden, the sunshine shone to dapple

fruit and flowers, the world a stained-glass chapel
full of light, laughter, childlike grace, and glory.
In the beginning, Adam picked the apple,
blamed it on Eve, told Father. End of story.

Now we strive to fry our bits of bread, our scrapple,
our cornmeal scraps, our sweat obligatory.
And never once did Adam say he’s sorry.
Ever since, we fight… push… grab and grapple
In the beginning, Adam picked the apple.

© Casey Robb

The Silver Thread

(Italian Sonnet)

Inside a mantra, tucked within a dream
I fell, then floated, tumbling . . . then I soared
into a darkened tunnel. Coming toward
my head there came a light—the thinnest beam;
then dazzling, brighter, blazed until it seemed
to fill the world. It showed that I was moored
by . . . a sort of thread . . . a luminous cord
of silver to a Living Light Supreme.

Following the cord, I joined a crowd
of creatures, of the dying and the dead
and, entering into a brilliant shroud,
I saw a newborn infant in her bed
cooing, laughing, gurgling aloud
and in her hand she clutched a silver thread.

© Casey Robb

Purchase Link

Morning Glory Moon

Casey Robb is a former physical therapist and a retired civil engineer from Texas, living in Northern California near her two adopted daughters. Her early passion for poetry was rekindled in middle age in the California Federation of Chaparral Poets (CFCP). Casey’s poetry has been published in many journals and has won numerous awards, including a best-of-convention trophy and a runner-up trophy at CFCP conventions. Her poems encompass a diverse range of subjects, both light and dark. She also enjoys writing fiction. Her short stories have been published in various journals, and she is currently working on a novel.