Minnesota poetry: Anna George Meek’s ‘Segment of a Circle’

Anna George Meek is blessed with a multitude of talents.

Meek sings with VocalEssence. Before that, she was a member of the esteemed Dale Warland Singers. She also plays a mean violin.

And then there's her writing. Meek is a professor of English at Normandale Community College. Her book, "Acts of Contortion," won the Brittingham Prize in Poetry. Now she's just released a new collection called "Engraved."

She'll read her work Wednesday at 7 p.m. at SubText bookstore in St. Paul with Margaret Hasse and Thursday Dec. 6 at 7  p.m., as part of the Maeve's Sessions in Minneapolis.

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Segment of a Circle

Like a Cheshire cat, the circle does not

show itself, save for this one

raised eyebrow. O circle,

we imagine thee. Centuries

are round, and they disappear

beyond the curve of the earth.

The engraver is long dead; even I

am only partially visible. Believer

or skeptic, I can only have faith

that the moon appears behind me

when I turn away, can only

dream of its light, the universe, and

all gibbous time, shining entire.

-- "Segment of a Circle," by Anna George Meek, as it appears in "Engraved," published by Tupelo Press. Reprinted here with permission of the author.