Welcome to Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan's Poetry & Writings

Cover Photography © 2024: Eliza Jo Morgan

If I Could Only Bottle This is a riddle that invites the reader to discover what “this” is. Some of the many possible solutions include passion, lightning, truth, and poetry. Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan’s insightful poetry deftly addresses a wide range of topics from the personal grief of a mother to the universal concern for the “world’s wounds” and that which “cannot be undone.” It recalls the fire and invincibility of youth (“when we were gods”) while also revealing the erotic delights of “ageless desire” and riding “the lightning we create.” Nuzzo-Morgan is a sage truth-teller who finds freedom by reclaiming her voice in this searing collection. ~ Deborah Hauser, Suffolk County Poet Laureate2023 - 2025

In this decade, women poets have been the innovators in subject, with attendant sympathy, compassion, and humor, and Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is one of the best of them. ~ Allen Planz, Former Editor of The Nation

There have been several books of poetry about the loss of children, including my own. Once only the topic of occasional poetry, the death of a child consumes entire books that mourn, honor, but never quite transcend, this deep, personal parental loss. Poets of vastly different styles—formal, free, abstract, symbolic, confessional, etc.—tend to use the same diction as Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan in her powerful collection, For Michael, which I highly recommend. As in other collections, hers is the diction of love, anger and despair, flattened at times by the inability of words to describe the loss of a beloved child. That flatness startles you in For Michael when you least anticipate it, as in ‘My 44th Birthday Poem,’ whose opening lines read: "Today Martha Stewart went home from prison/ to begin her five-month house arrest; I am going into my ninth year. ..." The lyric, ‘Trying to Make Sense,’ of course, cannot make sense of how a higher power can take away a child from a parent—bru tally rip, in this case—Michael from his mother, who asks: ‘Were you destined to be another Hitler, Stalin?/ ...Why else would the fates allow you to be killed/ simply crossing the street?’ All she can make sense of in this poem is the date Michael’s heart stopped beating in 1995. Alas, this book demands to be read and shared with as many people as possible, and there is a reason: We need to make sense of love lost, because all of us will lose love, have it ripped away violently or shorn quietly, reminding us, as Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan does, that everything is on loan in this life, with only dates to remind us, and even they fade away after the mourners are gone. But not poems. Not poems. And for this, and for Michael, we must embrace these beautiful, horrible verses.” ~ Michael Bugeja, author of The Art & Craft of Poetry, Writer’s Digest Books Michael Bugeja, Ph.D., Director and Professor Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication Iowa State University of Science and Technology

What I like most about Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan’s poetry is its directness. Here, a survivor expresses simply and fearlessly her wounds and hopes. At the best moments, these words convey the spirit and the emotions of one who does not give up. ~ Fran Castan

"Take my hand and run," Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan instructs us, and run with her we do, through moments of regret, heartache, fury, and humor evoked in the clear, direct language of real poetry. Let Me Tell You Something is a wise and satisfying collection that reminds us that poetry can have the power to translate "me" to "you." ~ Robert Long, Author of De Kooning's Bicycle: Artists and Writers in the Hamptons

In her preface Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan tells us that Chasing Clouds, this commodious collection of 40 years of her lyrics, is not in any order, date or subject or alphabetical. I kept this in mind as I read, moving from a poem about travel or being home, or about a wild creature, or about a poetry father (Vince Clemente / Allen Planz), or about depression or about fishing for poems or about the traumatic (to say the very least) death of her son. Along the way, I experienced a remarkable Whitmanian aria, “Cup of Hope for a Child,” that seems to celebrate & inhale the whole dream of these United States (hear “united” & hear “states”). In the end, Chasing Clouds coheres by way of the voice of a survivor who has wanted, as she says in so many ways, to close her eyes & keep discovering the day-to-day without being overwhelmed by its bafflements & pain. Sometimes she will write fiercely & in, as she says, “menstrual blood,” will wear her “freak,” as she puts it. Sometimes she’ll rhythm her grief/nature apprehensions & observations softly. As we read, we’ll have the sense of a deepening sensibility, & this will be the poet’s gift to us beyond chronology but in intuitional order always. We can begin reading anywhere, & our appreciation will increase upon itself. ~William Heyen, National Book Award Finalist, Author of Nature: Selected & New Poems 1970-2020

These essays were written over a seven-year period. They are related to several areas of my scholarly interests: Creativity; Poetry Therapy; Grief Studies; the Irish Struggle; Women’s Rights; Human Rights; and Philosophy in general.

From breaking chain links of childhood imprisonment and the haunting pain of loss to the wisdom of discovery, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan launches line after line of provocative poetry as she expresses the sense of self in the world we live in. The discipline of fusing formal structure with a flow of consciousness demonstrates her breadth of knowledge in a life influenced by poetry. Throughout the pages of Monster Howl, be prepared to hear the hammer of emotion as this unmistakable voice roars . . . “My name is Tammy, the palm tree in Hebrew I shall not be broken by the storm.” ~ Robert J Savino; Suffolk County Poet Laureate 2015-2017

Would you hug a porcupine, guides the reader on a journey that attempts to break down the walls of fear and bias, while entertaining the imagination. Would You Hug A Porcupine helps make diversity better understood. Pre-publication research was conducted using several first-grade classes. The children eagerly created drawings of themselves playing with different creatures, some of which were new species, after having the book read to them.

If you happen to need a book that will move you to tears, Dr. Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan has written it—an absorbing and heartrending story of the multiple traumas of her early life and the long journey to face and surmount them. Lacking any permanent stability in her family life, victim of both physical abuse and incest, hobbled with fear and internalized self-hate, she survived for years by way of self-medicating, dissociation, and desperate attempts to flee. Already at age 30 she had lived through more than a score of broken relationships and losses, with more tragedies to come later in life even as she gathered strength through poetry, psychotherapy, and sheer force of will. We are fortunate to have her testimony, often in painful detail, which gathers coherence out of an almost unfathomable emotional chaos and follows the dizzying path of suffering all the way to compassion, love, and self-acceptance. From her inspiring account, the many who know these troubles in their own lives will recognize the patterns, the ways to survive against the odds, and how to recover lost hopes. ~ George Northrup, Ph.D. Psychologist & Poet

This book concerning the healing power of poetry is divided into two parts: 1) The anthology: Gathering Flowers: Living with the Death of a Child and 2) a contextual essay which includes: an introduction of the healing power of poetry; an examination of the National Association of Poetry Therapy, including the healing potential of reading poetry; writing poetry, and poetry therapy, not all equally the same in its healing potential; empirical knowledge, including personal knowledge; of the healing power of poetry, including studies by Stuckey & Nobel and by Spann; a situating of Gathering Flowers: Living with the Death of a Child among existing anthologies of grief and healing poetry; reflections on creative process, including the Platonic and Aristotelian theories; method for compiling the anthology; an assessment of what the anthology accomplishes; the psychological theories of healing power of poetry; a critical examination of the poems written by grieving mothers; contextual reflections on the themes covered in the poems, as well as the psychological theories on the healing power of poetry; past research including prior literature on prolonged grief disorder and pathological grief; exclusively women as subject of study; a review of prior anthologies on grief, which showcases the uniqueness of the anthology, Gathering Flowers; and recommendations for future research.

This anthology is an invitation to readers to have the opportunity to experience the full range of emotions that occur when a child dies, as well as an opportunity to those who have never had to grapple with the issue before. The anthology illustrates what is common in various devastating scenarios, as well as an opportunity for these mothers to consider what blessings they may have had in the unique unfolding of their loss, if any blessings are to be found.

This collection increases the knowledge base of poetry as a healer. It offers an opportunity to consider the unique unfolding of loss and/or gain and examine the fullness of personal experience.

Poems written in remembrance and tribute to and of the events occurring on 9-11-01 by 100 poets.

An Anthology of Poetry from the Wrong Side of the Tracks Riding the Paumanok Train Poems your mother wouldn't let you read

A compilation of Poetry Contest Entrants, Gala Award Recipients & Judges’ Poetry.

An Anthology of Poetry from the Wrong Side of the Side of the Tracks Riding the Paumanok Train Poems your mother wouldn't let you read

Some Notes on To Be Completely Honest Anthology (by Dr. Carol Barrett) Anthologies may have several functions. Here are some thoughts about those that seem to succeed best in this work. I. The Encouragement of the Writing Lives of Contributors The collection represents the work of many writers, and I can well imagine publication has been a serious encouragement to them. You have permitted ample space for the bios at the end of the work, have often included multiple poems by the same poet (which is relatively unusual), and a wide range of poets in terms of prior experience is apparent from reading the bios. So the work undoubtedly functions to promote the potential of these poets for future writing and publication, and also probably functions to build stronger community among those whose work is sampled. This is to be celebrated, indeed! II. The Engagement of the Theme of Self-Reflection The goal to provide an opportunity for self-reflection through first-person lyric poems has clearly been realized. Given the incorporation of the title of the collection into several of the poems, I surmise that some of these poems were written in response to the announcement of the project. Themed work was sought, and new work indeed materialized. You have prompted creativity among your poetry community, and those who took you up on the appeal have new work to show for it. That is the second real success of the project. III. The Potential Enhancement of Healing or Self-Knowledge For some poets, including perhaps some you chose not to publish, the opportunity you presented enabled greater self-knowledge, and potentially contributed to healing from damaging situations. We know creative work can do this, and while it would take an interview with the poets to know for sure, I predict the self-discoveries have led to greater self-respect, more emphatic refusal to be manipulated or abused, and greater determination to live in accordance with valued principles. Even for those poets whose poems seem “stuck” in a place of melancholy, perhaps the naming of their feelings can make them more open to therapeutic encounters in the future. This is not a small achievement. IV. The Contribution to Art The value of a work of art is assessed in various ways depending of course on the evaluator. I experienced the cover image as inviting the subject of the collection, suggesting perhaps a solitary walk in nature when one could be in dialogue with oneself, in the company of trees, or perhaps a tumbling creek just ahead. The individual works within the collection I found somewhat variable in quality. Some works encourage new insights about the subject matter for me. Readers of course vary greatly. Since I have worked in the field of psychology for decades, I am probably a “tougher” reader of poems dedicated to self-exploration than others may be. While I certainly found moments of surprise and delight, novel imagery and unexpected “turns” in many of the other poems, they did not have the same impact for me. Such are my thoughts, Tammy! Revel in your accomplishment! Dr. Barrett's short bio: Carol Barrett holds doctorates in both clinical psychology and creative writing. She is a professor and coordinates the Creative Writing Certificate Program at Union Institute & University. She is also a professor at Saybrook University. Her books include Calling in the Bones, which won the Snyder Prize from Ashland Poetry Press. Her poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies including JAMA, Poetry International, Nimrod, Poetry Northwest, and The Women’s Review of Books. A former NEA Fellow in Poetry, she lives in Bend, OR.