Sidney Wade

Sidney Wade Poems

Sidney Wade Biography

Sidney Wade (born 1951) is an American poet. She currently holds the position of Professor of creative writing at the University of Florida, where she has taught since 1993. Wade was born in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1951. She attended the University of Vermont, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1974 and an M.Ed. in counseling in 1978. She earned an Ph.D in English from the University of Houston in 1994. Wade has published five poetry collections, including: Celestial Bodies (2002), Green (1998), From Istanbul/Istanbul'dan (1998), and Empty Sleeves (1990). Istanbul'dan/From Istanbul was published in Turkish and English by Yapi Kredi Publications. Wade's latest collection of poems, Stroke, was published by Persea Books. Her poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The New Republic, Southern Review, and other publications. Wade received a Fulbright Fellowship and was a senior lecturer at Istanbul University from 1989-1990. She was awarded the Stanley P. Young Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 1994. Wade currently the president of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Wade lives in Gainesville.)

The Best Poem Of Sidney Wade

Burrowing Owl

Very odd,
this little cloud
in trousers
in the sandy
fortress
favored by
prairie dog
and gopher
tortoise.
On the mound
at the mouth hole,
he scouts around
with sibylline
yellow eyes
and then, owl-
wise, decides
to clean house.
He dives down
and soon
great clouds
of smudge come
flying out,
his home now
clean as a bone.
A diurnal owl,
he's upside down
and inside out
at ease
not in trees
but underground,
where his mate
broods
on her eight
fragile moons
in an immaculate
burrow whose
contours are lined
with cow manure.

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