Ronda Broatch
Ronda Broatch is the author of Shedding Our Skins, (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Some Other Eden, (2005). Her journal publications include: Atlanta Review, RHINO, Prairie Schooner, Fourteen Hills, Mid-American Review, and Fire On Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry (Two Sylvias Press). Seven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Ronda is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant, and was a May Swenson Poetry Award finalist four years running.
A Seattle native, Ronda is a graduate of the University of Washington, receiving degrees in Creative Writing, Photography, and Art, and has had the good fortune to study poetry with Nelson Bentley, and short story writing with Charles Johnson. She has taught poetry workshops to students from grade school to high school level, and has been a mentor for West Sound Academy’s literary magazine, Mud Pie. Her photography has appeared in local galleries, including the Gallery At Grace, (Grace Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island).
Ronda edits the literary journal Crab Creek Review and teaches a variety of fitness classes at the Poulsbo Athletic Club. Starting with Poetry Month three years ago, she began a tradition of reading a poem every Tuesday to her Silver Sneakers Yoga class.
Upcoming Reading Dates
Ronda will be at the MoonPath Press group reading at Open Books, Seattle, WA. Saturday, November 3rd from 7:00pm - 8:30pm.
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Poem from Lake of Fallen Constellations
This is a Language of Simple, Obvious Things
—after a line by Anna Moschovakis
how the wife cuts asparagus into lengths
the steamer will accept, how the husband
clears the table of bills, expired
subscriptions the wife collects. She pulls
potatoes out of the oven, broils
her knuckles—just briefly—
while the husband draws knives, forks,
from their slotted beds, plunks them
on the scrubbed pine where books of poetry, odes
to joy and mammography
reminders rest in a neat stack at its head.
The wife carves the roast, drops a slice
onto a blue platter with orange
carrots the husband awakes from someplace
just beneath reach of the sun.
