Poems, Essays & Stories
By Dianna Henning
“Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and
it begins as did all the fine arts,
within the original wilderness
of the earth.”
— Mary Oliver
Introduction
Dianna MacKinnon Henning taught through California Poets in the Schools, received several California Arts Council grants and taught poetry workshops through the William James Association’s Prison Arts Program, including Folsom Prison. CAC grants for teaching poetry at Diamond View Middle School and she runs “The Thompson Peak Writers’ Workshop.”
Publications, in part:
Nomination by The Adirondack Review for a Pushcart Prize a few years back. MFA in Writing ’89, Vermont College. Recently nominated (2024) by Blue Heron Review for a Pushcart for her poem “In the Collage of my Mind/I’m a Simple Design,” her ninth Pushcart nomination 2024.
She has a new book “Rucksacks for the Leaf Cat” by Finishing Line Press due out Jan. 2026. Book publications, Poets Corner Press, Black Buzzard Press, Finishing Line Press & Kelsay Books.
Posts
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Window Magic
A doe stretches
to reach the topmost
leaves as she strips
our Mock Orange bush,
nose wet as a dew-
dipped blackberry. -
To Nuance or Not to Nuance
The men I worked with at Folsom Prison,
walk single line
down the knife of night,
their eyes averted,
their blue jeans baggy -
New Publication – Rucksacks For The Leaf Cat
Dianna Henning‘s Rucksacks for the Leaf Cat is a rucksack filled with treasures for poetry lovers. We find something for every mood. Every page is carefully wrought, so all that’s left is a crystalline poem. For immediate and lasting book pleasure.
–Grace Cavalieri, Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate