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This poem is from the chapbook If by Donna French McArdle (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://finishinglinepress.com/product/if-by-donna-french-mcardle/
Donna French McArdle began studying of poetry at Kirkland and Hamilton Colleges under Tess Gallagher and Michael Burkard, where she won the Watrous Prize for Poetry. She spent a semester studying with Richard Shelton at the University of Arizona. After graduating, she attended Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, then the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop earning an MFA studying with Marvin Bell, Donald Justice, and Sandra McPherson. She then began a decades-long writing career, working as a copywriter for advertising and public relations, a technical writer documenting database interfaces, a journalist for local publications, and a writing coach full-time in public schools. She received a grant from the Boxford and Massachusetts Cultural Councils to write, design, publish, and promote a book on local farm stands. Her poems have been published in several literary journals, including Sixfold and Wilderness House Literary Review, and the anthology Lost Orchard from SUNY Press.
The Paddock Review 