Craft: Rachel Sherwood

Rachel Sherwood (1954-1979) was an original poet who died too early. She was a close friend of the poet David Trinidad, who published a book of Sherwood’s poems, Mysteries of Afternoon and Evening, on Sherwood Press, which he established in order to publish her work (he also published a handful of chapbooks by others).

Sherwood, c. 1976: “in honeyed nappings / these little deaths / that taunt me.”

Sherwood was born in Washington, DC, but grew up in Southern California. She attended California State University in Northridge, where she edited a literary magazine called Angel’s Flight. She also did editorial work at the magazines 1822 and The Wallace Stevens Journal. At the time of her death, she was a graduate student at California State University and was teaching composition.

Sherwood’s poems are the expression of youth in its most tender and developing state. Still, her poems show a potential that is rare and important. The poems’ unfinished quality belies what important discoveries her poems could have shown us, and show the raw material of something special.