Ode to Darnel (Ode to the Crocus)
February 19th, 2026 | by Carey Salerno
You are the uterus clipped from its stem
About Carey Salerno
Carey Salerno
Carey Salerno is the author of three books of poetry: Shelter, Tributary, and The Hungriest Stars. Her poems have been published in journals and magazines broadly and have recently appeared in Poetry, The Georgia Review, American Poetry Review, and The Harvard Review. She is the recipient of a 2025 Pushcart Prize and a 2025 Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Council. Salerno serves as the executive director and publisher of Alice James Books. She also serves as a lecturer in poetry and in publishing arts for the University of Maine and is a frequent guest at residencies, and MFA and nontraditional writing programs across the country. Her essays and articles about her work as a publisher can be found in places like American Poetry Review, NPR, The New York Times, and other outlets. In 2021, she received the Golden Colophon Award for Independent Paradigm Publishing from CLMP, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, for the leadership and contributions of Alice James Books.