Author Archives: Bartholomew Barker

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.

Fraiku: Brood

Every 13 years poems dig themselves up — molting metaphors open mic drone (Found this little guy, legs up, twitching on the sidewalk. I took this shot after turning him over. Hope he gets laid and dies well.)

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When I Woke Up in Panoply

I am very proud to announce that a new poem of mine, When I Woke Up, has been published at Panoply. Many thanks to the editors Andrea, Clara, and Jeff for accepting my work.

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Fraiku: Free the Press

Reporters are annoying but even noisy busybodies deserve to live and witness for World Press Freedom Day

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Savor the Confluence

I’m proud to announce that one of my poems was included in the anthology Savor: Poems for the Tongue! by Friendly City Books. I haven’t received my contributor’s copy yet but it looks like a delicious collection of food poems. … Continue reading

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Poet Trees

Some poets take the reader by the hand and guide them through the forest. Some poets blaze a well-marked trail but leave the reader to walk alone. Some poets climb the high branches and throw acorns at their readers. And … Continue reading

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Elegy

You gave me my first telescope yet never felt the full shadow of a solar eclipse. But if you’d lived to a hundred and ten, one would’ve come to you, as I did, a pilgrimage to your grave in the … Continue reading

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Dancing with the Stars

“You need chaos in your soulto give birth to a dancing star”~ Friedrich Nietzsche I’ve seen stars dance in my telescope— a slow sensual clutch around their barycenter, bound by attraction. I am exaggerating like a poet. They are not … Continue reading

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Like a Tree in April

We hold deep conversations when you’re not around. I explain why I don’t enjoy Star Trek: Discovery and what could convince me there was a god. You’re the perfect companion always asking the right questions, never probing where I don’t … Continue reading

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Fraiku: Campus

Listen the protestors, unkempt, thin and idealistic, they are usually right.

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Seven Questions I ask all my muses

If you were a flower, what kind would you be? How would you feel if you received a bouquet of yourself? If you were a cloud, what shape would you be? How would you feel about meteorologists? If you were … Continue reading

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