Melissa McEver Huckabay
Melissa McEver Huckabay is a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Texas State University and teaches composition at University of Houston-Downtown. She is an experienced writing instructor, having taught English Language Arts at the high school and college levels, as well as serving as a writer-in-residence for Writers in the Schools. She also worked in magazine and newspaper journalism for several years.
Melissa’s poetry has appeared in SWWIM, Thimble, Poetry South, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and elsewhere, and is forthcoming in Minnesota Review and Phoebe Journal. Her short fiction also has won the Spider’s Web Flash Fiction Prize from Spider Road Press. Melissa was a 2023 Contributor to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently is associate editor at Thimble Literary Magazine. Visit her online at www.melissamhuckabay.com.
Excerpt from The Worried Woman Odes (originally published in Thimble Literary Magazine):
Wildflowers
Beloved, I keep returning to you,
your splendor, blue,
crimson, yellow. Wondering
how long before your light fades
and you leave us, a mother
who leaves her mind
in the sun.
Blood Pressure
O the vessels
breaking in my love’s eyes,
the cuff that caresses him
like I do, in the dark.
Please, body-wonder,
drop, make the roaring
stop.
You’re rushing,
and I need
so much
more time
with him.
Papers
Canvas, dearest one.
I pull you up, gaze at words
like “argue” and “survey,”
study the rubric, Meets
Expectations, and I long
to love you, to care about
each curve of the words.
I long to believe someone
will read my comments
about what needs
to be changed.
I want to change
everything.
Recommended Books for Aspiring Poets
Teaching Philosophy
I believe everyone has a poet within them—all we need to do is observe closely, experience honestly, and be willing to go on a weird, wonderful journey within your mind. Poetry should surprise you as much as it does the reader—that’s how you know you’re on the right track.
Melissa’s poetry has appeared in SWWIM, Thimble, Poetry South, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and elsewhere, and is forthcoming in Minnesota Review and Phoebe Journal. Her short fiction also has won the Spider’s Web Flash Fiction Prize from Spider Road Press. Melissa was a 2023 Contributor to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently is associate editor at Thimble Literary Magazine. Visit her online at www.melissamhuckabay.com.
Excerpt from The Worried Woman Odes (originally published in Thimble Literary Magazine):
Wildflowers
Beloved, I keep returning to you,
your splendor, blue,
crimson, yellow. Wondering
how long before your light fades
and you leave us, a mother
who leaves her mind
in the sun.
Blood Pressure
O the vessels
breaking in my love’s eyes,
the cuff that caresses him
like I do, in the dark.
Please, body-wonder,
drop, make the roaring
stop.
You’re rushing,
and I need
so much
more time
with him.
Papers
Canvas, dearest one.
I pull you up, gaze at words
like “argue” and “survey,”
study the rubric, Meets
Expectations, and I long
to love you, to care about
each curve of the words.
I long to believe someone
will read my comments
about what needs
to be changed.
I want to change
everything.
Recommended Books for Aspiring Poets
- A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, Emily Rosko and Anton Vander Zee
- The Hurting Kind, Ada Limón
- Obit, Victoria Chang
- The Making of a Poem, Eavan Boland and Mark Strand
- Frank: sonnets, Diane Seuss
Teaching Philosophy
I believe everyone has a poet within them—all we need to do is observe closely, experience honestly, and be willing to go on a weird, wonderful journey within your mind. Poetry should surprise you as much as it does the reader—that’s how you know you’re on the right track.