Biography

Fran Witham began writing poetry in college, and some of her early poems appeared in The Journal of New Jersey Poets and The Passaic Review. She received a B.A. in English from Fairleigh Dickinson University, a M.A. in English Literature from Seton Hall University, and a M.S.W. from the University of Georgia. She has studied poetry with James Klein, Gregory Orr, David Ignatow, Melanie Braverman, Catherine Bowman, Gail Mazur and Stanford M. Forrester.

Recently her poetry has been published in   Akitsu Quarterly, Modern Haiku, tinywords, Streetlights:  Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, Ambrosia, Concise Delight, Day's End Poetry, Modern English Tanka, American Tanka, Ribbons, Atlas Poetica, Landfall: Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka, Ash Moon Anthology, Red Lights, Paterson Literary Review, Nisqually Delta Review, Bottle Rockets, The Pegasus Review, Frogpond, Presence, Paper Wasp, White Heron, Poetry Midwest, Pine Island Journal of New England Poetry, and Cotyledon.

Fran enjoys teaching poetry workshops with the Fine Line Poets at various locales in New England, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

The Japanese willow

I planted in spring

and tended all summer

is not bending its feathery arms

to brush my cheek—

it is only the autumn wind.

the sound

of wood burning—

so much like

falling

rain

morning after the storm

a clear sky

but with each gust of wind

under the maples

it is raining

caterpillars

have turned the maple leaves

to lace

and a path of shade

to one of dappled sunlight

searching for God

on the lowest shelf

I find a book

and read quietly

on my knees

in the fine arts museum

a small Asian painting:

eggplants in a wooden bowl

picked by a peasant

and signed with a poem

provincetown

a sea

of brilliant silk

rustles

at the edge

of the earth