Elizabeth Oxley

POETRY & WRITING

PUBLICATIONS & BIO

Poetry Illuminated,

A Project of the Mill Valley Public Library

"Driving West, I Eat Swedish Fish"

​

Frontier Poetry

"Expelling Venus" & "After April Rain"

Motherscope Magazine

"Underwater Photography"

​

Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac

"Revolutions"

Ruminate

"Alpaca"

​

Peregrine

"Women"

​

The Poetry Review

"Biracial"

​

Mary Jane's Farm

"A Reason to Crow"

​

Susquehanna Life

"Susquehanna Mine"

​

Boulder Weekly

"You Could Smell Humanity"

"Cuba at the Crossroads"

​

The Colorado Independent

"Poetry Lesson After the Las Vegas Shooting"

"Bird in the Hand"

"Sparrows"

"Bedtime Story for Denver"

​

​

A graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Oxley makes her home in the western U.S. Her poems and writing have appeared in literary journals, newspapers, and magazines.

Elizabeth counts herself lucky to have participated in poetry workshops such as Aspen Summer Words, Key West Literary Seminar, Lighthouse Writers' Workshop, and Napa Valley Writers' Conference, all of which she highly recommends to both established and aspiring writers!

​

Say hello via the contact form below.

SAMPLE POEMS

A LOVE STORY

I still recall it: my childhood bedroom, painted tutti-frutti pink. I don't remember why I chose that color. Me—a quiet, book-loving girl—next to all of that bold, confident pink! I spent a great deal of my time separated from it, sitting inside my walk-in closet, hanging out with a stack of books and a reading lamp. I kept company with Ramona Quimby, stories like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. 

​

I dreamed of becoming a writer.

​

I studied literature in college, but to my dismay, my path to the writing life never quite materialized. I'd almost suppressed my dream by the time I met John. 

My neighbor in a western mountain town, John was an atmospheric physicist and accomplished poet. He suggested we meet to talk about poetry. Our poetry. Where he'd gotten the idea that I actually wrote poetry, I still don't know. To me, poetry was unfamiliar—and slightly terrifying—territory.

With the date of our get-together approaching, I sat down at my kitchen table to try my hand at a poem. I felt like a fraud. Soon, something else took over. I felt myself being pulled into poetry's tide. I wrote one small poem, then several more. I couldn't get enough. It felt like poetry was calling, and I had no option but to answer. It felt a lot like love.

​

Since that time, I've been fortunate to make friends of other poets and to benefit from the generous instruction of several gifted workshop instructors. While I primarily write poetry, I've also turned my attention to screenplay writing and a revisited work of fiction.

It's the mystery of language I adore. If you do, too, please drop me a line below. I'd be glad to hear from you!

​

​

Elizabeth

SAY HELLO!