From The New Criterion, June 1998, Volume 16, Number 10. You may have read her beautiful children’s book, The Mouse of Amherst, about a mouse living in the wall behind Emily Dickinson’s writing desk. The illustrations by Claire Nivola, the colors, and the two friends trading poems make it a book worth hunting down. More here and here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/elizabeth-spires
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mouse-Amherst-Elizabeth-Spires/dp/0374350833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407258982&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mouse+of+Amherst

from Dogwood / by Elizabeth Spires b. 1952

For weeks you have stood there,
arms raised like a priest